Why the English Language is Lacking

Loving Generously, but Exclusively

My priest has often said that love is the most overused word in the English language. I agree. Love is worth infinitely more than its common use in English would communicate.  Best defined, love is God.[1]  Thus, by definition, love is transcendent.[2] ] It is constant.[3] It persists even when the other is guilty of pain.[4] It is selfless to the point of death.[5] Love is far greater than attraction or affection or emotions or feelings.

For Christians who profess the Nicene Creed, we know that Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are of one essence. What follows is that Jesus is also love. This should be perfectly obvious given that Jesus gave us the best expression of love when he selflessly died on the cross for all mankind. Jesus taught us – and demonstrated –that love in its highest form is sacrificial action.[6]

Critics will argue that love is not only sacrificial, and that other forms of love exist. This is true. Expressions of love – particularly in romantic relationships – are well documented in a book on the languages of love. But love in its highest form and best expression is sacrificial, selfless, and does not seek its own.[7]  

Other critics will argue there is no harm in “loving” the material world. But love is from the Father, and the Father is constant. The world is separate from the Father and temporal.[8] We are all born in His image and are not made to love this world. Doing so will never fulfill our need to love and to be loved.

The problem here is the English language. In practice we use love as the greater form of “like”.[9] But “like” and “love” are not even on the same spectrum. Liking something or someone is concerned with the self. Love is concerned with the other. English lacks a word to express a greater form of “liking” to help us communicate a greater admiration for people whose company we enjoy or for objects that give us pleasure.[10]

And while the prospects of the English language inventing such a word remain bleak, we ought not to water down the sacrificial love of Jesus by expressing “love” for the material world: food, cars, clothing, work. Instead, we should express love more generously – towards people,[11] virtues,[12] and God,[13] but more sparingly with the inanimate and the temporary.

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[1] “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16

[2]  “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 (Emphasis added).

[3] “A friend loves as all times. And a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17

[4] “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

[5] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

[6] “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13

[7] “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”1 Corinthians 13:4-7

[8] “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17

[9] At least English is better than French, “the language of love”, which has just one word for like and love: aimer.

[10] This is why English has reduplication: “So, you must like-like her?”

[11] “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.” Romans 12:9-10

[12] “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

[13]  “Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” Matthew 22:37