True Love
The sermon highlights the distortion of the concept of love in modern society and the loss of its divine meaning.
A.W. Tozer emphasizes the purity and beauty of true love, contrasting it with the distorted perceptions of love prevalent in modern society. He laments how love has been misrepresented and degraded by various cultural influences, leading to a loss of its divine meaning. Tozer argues that this degradation has resulted in a shallow understanding of love, reducing it to something unworthy of respect. He calls for a return to the true essence of love, which reflects its divine origin and purpose.
Text
Among the innocent victims of this effete and degenerate age, there is none so pure and so beautiful as love.
Next to the word God with its various forms, there is no word so fair in all the language. Yet it may be said without qualification that this beautiful word has so suffered in the house of its friends as now to be scarcely recognizable. For the great mass of mankind, love has lost its divine meaning. The novelist, the playwright, the psychoanalyst, the writer of popular love songs, have abused this fair being too long.
For filthy lucre, they have dragged her through the sewers of the human mind until she appears to the world as no more than a blowzy and bloated strumpet for whom no one any longer has the least trace of respect, the mention of whose name brings no more than a wink or an embarrassed simper. By losing the divine content from the concept of love, modern man now has remaining only what we might expect--a brazen-faced dowd whom he courts at all hours of the day and night with songs that should make a chimpanzee blush.
Sermon Outline
- The Beauty of Love
- The Abuse of Love
- The Consequences of Losing the Divine Meaning of Love
- Love has become a shallow and carnal concept
- It is no longer respected or revered
Key Quotes
“Among the innocent victims of this effete and degenerate age, there is none so pure and so beautiful as love.” — A.W. Tozer
“For filthy lucre, they have dragged her through the sewers of the human mind until she appears to the world as no more than a blowzy and bloated strumpet for whom no one any longer has the least trace of respect,” — A.W. Tozer
Application Points
- We must strive to maintain the divine meaning of love in our lives and not let it be distorted by the world.
- We should be careful not to contribute to the abuse of love through our words and actions.
- We must respect and reverence love as a beautiful and pure concept.