The word “creed” comes from the Latin “credo” which simply means “I believe”, and there are many well-known creeds, such as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, that have sought to articulate delicate points of doctrine.
Many of the historic creeds were developed to combat various heresies that emerged. Today it is not uncommon for a local church to require adherence to a statement of faith before allowing a person to be a part of the fellowship, thus attempting to ensure unity within the company in key areas of belief. Of course, it is important to remember that, while creeds and statements of faith are useful, they are produced by men and women and are therefore fallible, meaning: capable of being wrong. This is in contrast to the Word of God (the Bible) which is “God-breathed” and infallible (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). All creeds, therefore, must be looked at through the lens of Scripture.
However, a new “creed” was brought to public attention in 2023 when a female “pastor” of a Lutheran church in Minnesota recited the Sparkle Creed:
And let us confess our faith today in the words of the Sparkle Creed. “I believe in the non-binary God, whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw everyone as a sibling child of God. I believe in the rainbow Spirit, who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity. I believe in the church of everyday saints, as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the AIDS quilt, whose feet are grounded in mud, and whose eyes gaze at the stars in wonder. I believe in the calling to each of us that love is love is love. So, beloved, let us love. I believe, glorious God. Help my unbelief. Amen.”
For the avoidance of any doubt, if someone claims to be a Christian (and, by implication, claims to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God) and yet does not see any issue with this creed, that person has been deceived (1 John 1:6; 2:3; 4:5,6). It is impossible for someone to be genuinely indwelt by the Spirit and yet confess the above creed. Much could be said about every single line of it, but let us take a closer look at one phrase that is quite prevalent in our culture today: love is love.
It sounds like an unassailable truism: “love is love”. Of course love is love – it can’t be anything else! However, a careful examination of the term and, importantly, the context in which it is regularly and frequently used will reveal a meaning that is problematic at best, and unbiblical at worst.
One does not need to search too long online to discover that definitions of this popular slogan are many and varied, but, while there appears to be no standard definition of what exactly is meant by “love is love” (indeed, the term implies that “love” cannot be qualified or questioned), since its entry into the English lexicon a number of years ago, the term has frequently been used within the context of LGBTQ+ rights. For all intents and purposes, the term “love is love” is used to make the point that all expressions of love are equally valid, regardless of the object or mode, that all people everywhere should be permitted to love (although this is often a euphemism for “have sex with”) whoever they choose. As long as someone feels loved, it doesn’t matter: whether that relationship is homosexual or heterosexual; whether it includes one partner or multiple partners (regardless of commitment); or how each person involved identifies corresponding to their understanding of reality. To reach a conclusion other than “love is love”, is to risk being called bigoted; homophobic; transphobic; misogynistic, and so on.
There are questions to be asked, however, such as: whilst those who hold to the sentiments of “love is love” will all “draw the line” somewhere, is the positioning of that line as clear as its proponents would like to believe?
The Christian should be wary of using such terms in a shallow way, not only because the words fail to tell the full story, but because their origin, and usual context, is against what the Bible teaches. On the subject of marriage, Scripture is clear:
“…Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matthew 19:4-6 NASB 1995).
Since “love is love” is often used as an apologetic for homosexual “marriage” (among other sexual relationships, and ideologies), to embrace “love is love” is to reject what God has revealed in His Word.
The apparent truism, then, certainly requires a great deal of nuance. But what does the Bible have to say about love?
Far from stating that “love is love”, it says:
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8 ESV).
Moreover, the Apostle John clarifies how we know love, and what love ought to be characterised by:
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters … Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:16,18 NIV).
Statements like “love is love” and “love wins” are used in such a way that suggests we all know what they mean, and that everyone is on the same page. But notice what is implied in the above verse: apart from the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, our grasp of what love is, is loose at best. Unless our understanding of love finds its source in the Person and work of Christ, whatever form of “love” we have will be empty. If we remove God from the picture altogether (as the “love is love” slogan does), “love” can be whatever someone wants it to be.
The Greek language (the language the New Testament section of the Bible was originally written in) is well known for its precision and has multiple words for “love”, only two of which are found explicitly in the pages of the New Testament: philia (close friendship/brotherly love) & agape (goodwill/benevolence/faithfulness). It is this second word, agape, that attracts our attention in particular, because it’s the word that is used to describe the love that is “from God” (1 John 4:7).
Agape love is characterised by what it does, and the greatest display of agape love is the giving of God the Son, Jesus Christ, by God the Father:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV).
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6).
“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14 ESV).
God didn’t have to give. God didn’t need to be gracious or merciful; by their definitions, these attributes are void of obligation. Indeed, all deserve the justice and wrath of God, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Rather, God has chosen to be gracious, and merciful toward us. Why? Because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
This, of course, doesn’t mean that God is only love (for God is also righteous, just and holy, for example), nor does it mean that love is God (love and God are not the same thing). It does mean, however, that love is intrinsic to who God is; love is an essential attribute of God’s character. Before anything was ever created, there was agape love between God the Father and God the Son (John 17:24), and this love has been extended to the world in the giving of Christ for the salvation of sinners.
Paul, writing to the Christians in Corinth, says:
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practising homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NET).
Though not an exhaustive list, sins of different stripes and colours are mentioned in that verse, including some, such as drunkenness or homosexuality, that perhaps many people wouldn’t even consider to be sinful in our contemporary culture. Nevertheless, all sins are equal in the sense that all who practise such will never be part of God’s kingdom.
However, crucially Paul says, “Some of you once lived this way.” That is to say, a change took place. The believers in Corinth were born again by the power of the Holy Spirit; sin’s domination was broken, their old pattern of life replaced; and God declared them to be righteous, through faith alone in the merits of Christ alone. That same work is as effective in this day and age as it ever was.
So, as we are exposed to terms such as “love is love”, let us remember instead that “God is love”; that God has given; and that by trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice, a person’s sins, whatever they may be, are dealt with finally and totally, as the wrath of God was spent on Christ.
