We have all heard the song, and more importantly than the song, I hope you have seen the movie. Tina Turner was a woman who was broken, abused, and scarred by a love that didn’t count for much of anything.

Ike, it is said, was an abusive husband who had no heart; therefore, I could never see he was worthy of commendable applause. His love was a vague shadow of an inborn hatred that festered to the surface due to a broken heart. It appeared his love wasn’t real because he didn’t have Jesus in it.

Jesus commands us to love one another; not as Cain (who was of that wicked one), who slew his brother; but we are to love with a pure heart, fervently in word and deed. Every opportunity we get, we need to let our light so shine before men so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. Charity is the bond of perfection.

And my answer for Tina is “Love has everything to do with it, as long as it is the love of God in the heart and not love from the head.”

We have all had some bad experiences with people who claimed to love us. When we trust in that love and lean on that love, we find that it fails; because it doesn’t mend the brokenness within our lives. This is because it’s not Jesus’ love; it’s fleshly love. The love of God heals, it mends, and it will sustain you through the trial or pain which you are experiencing. Love conquers all, has no respect of persons, and covers a multitude of sins.

I believe the greatest definition of love can be found in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13. And the greatest personification of love can be seen in John Chapter 13. After all, Jesus was Love manifest in the flesh. God is Love. He that says “I love God” and hates his brother is a liar and the truth is not in him. So let us love God’s people and love our enemies; and this love will tear down every wall of division that tries to manifest itself in our hearts.

What’s love got to do with it? We’ll let the Scriptures answer the question:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. (2) And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (3) And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

(4) Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, (5) Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; (6) Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; (7) Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

(8) Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

(9) For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. (10) But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. (11) When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (12) For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

(13) And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)