2 Samuel 13

“Then Amnon hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, "Arise, be gone!"” (2 Samuel 13:15).

Satan has three goals; kill, steal, and destroy. David sinned. David sinned and attempted to cover it up by having Uriah killed. Then David covered that up. Finally, we see the repercussions for David’s actions take place. David’s household would turn into complete turmoil. We can sense a strange perversion being the spirit behind all of it.

Our verse today is oh so true in this present culture. Now the entire nature of Amnon was perverted from the beginning because Tamar was his half-sister. However, Amnon felt justified because the surrounding nations often had this practice of marrying their half-sisters. It was also a common political move. Let us just say that Amnon could be justified in this (though in no way am I actually supporting this). Amnon’s love for Tamar was perverse because it was all based on lust. What he called “love” was actually nothing more than a selfish desire. The greatest perversion here is the perversion of the word “love,” which has become rampant in our culture today.

This world wants you to believe that “love” is how close you can get to someone. They want you to believe that it is how many one on one time you can have with them or how close you can get without going too far. The Bible says differently. “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. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Meditate on this definition in comparison to our culture today. Are you all these things? Can you replace the word love with your name?

In a world which is perverting love, I just wanted to remind you what it is. We are called to love one another. We are called to love our family members around us. We are called to love the world. We are called to be ambassadors of Jesus, and 1 John tells us that “God is love.” Truly the name of Jesus can replace every “love” in our verses. Is it not interesting that the moment Amnon got what he wanted, his hatred became far greater than the love he ever had for Tamar. Why? It was not love. His “love” failed and failed miserably. It was all based on selfish motives and poor Tamar knew this and even said, "No, indeed! This evil of sending me away is worse than the other that you did to me."

God is love. God is the source of love. God is the fountain of love, and God is the reason to love. Any love that is not founded in God falls short of our definition above. Any love that does not flow from God turns into hatred when circumstances prevail. Therefore, if you seek to obey the first and second greatest commandment, intensely, with all your being, cling on to Jesus.