Cancel Tina Turner

Tina Turner’s hit song, “What’s Love Got to Do With it?” is still famous 40 years after its release. Songs don’t take off and remain popular like that just because they’re a catchy tune. Something about it resonated with society. Francis Shaeffer once said (paraphrasing): “Musicians are the common man’s philosophers.” The song resonated with people’s experience which obviously could not have been good. Just read about Tina’s.

Now, fast-forward 40 years, and suddenly culture is bringing back that second-rate emotion. Not only is it being brought back, but it being given a blank check to be used however, whenever and with whoever. First-class, privileged status. “Love is love,” they say. Pun intended.

What happened? Maybe a generation that decided to protect itself from the fear of broken love by rejecting it is being replaced by a generation choosing to utilize a different strategy: fawning. Fighting and running from it did not work, so maybe we should just embrace it and let it take us wherever it desires.

This will not work because it does not address the root-cause: pain, brokenness and fear that is the result of violating God’s moral laws. Others do it to us, and, sadly, we also do it to ourselves. We don’t need a love so customizable and inconsistent that it becomes meaningless. The love we all need is God’s love, defined by God.

2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV) tells us God has given us a spirit of power, love, and self-control, not of fear. This verse challenges us to choose love over fear. What fear, you ask? The kind that qualifies as trauma and affects the majority of Tina Turner’s audience’s children (think about it). And we need a love that is not defined by modern secular culture, but a deep, biblical love rooted in God's unchanging nature.

Fear, defined as timidity and faithlessness, can manifest as a lack of self-assurance, courage, and bravery, making individuals easily alarmed and shy. It causes us to protect ourselves from perceived threats, real or not. Biblical love, often called "agape," is profoundly different. It is a selfless, unconditional love that transcends human understanding. Agape builds trust and encourages unwavering commitment in relationships, dispelling fear. Christians know this love because of Jesus Christ. It is a love they experience and possess and learn to give to others.

The love described in 2 Timothy 1:7 comes from God alone. It is a gift and begins producing more of it within you. It is not intellectual, psychological or emotional. It is spiritual. Embracing this love transforms your identity, changing how you interact with others, your character, and your life's direction.

By choosing God’s love over fear and our favorite fear-response slogan, we can experience profound transformation. Do not be ashamed of this transformative love but set an example for others, giving them hope, living out the truth of 2 Timothy 1:7, and displacing fear through God's perfect love.