The Real Greatest Love of All

If you’re from my generation, or for some insane reason ever find yourself listening to the 80’s station on the radio, you’ve probably heard the song, “Greatest Love of All” as performed by Whitney Houston. It’s a stirring pop ballad that has no doubt inspired many and has probably been sung at high school graduations and talent shows all across the land. It spent three weeks at the top of Billboard’s charts in 1986, and you can download it today for your cell phone ringtone.

Disclaimer: If this is your favorite song, you might want to stop reading now or you’re going to hate me in the next paragraph.

The song stinks. No, not literally. In fact, it smells quite pleasant to the non-discerning ear. It speaks about learning to discover within oneself the ability to love oneself, saying that’s the greatest love of all. This idea appeals powerfully to people who may be struggling with depression, loneliness or lack of self-worth. It addresses a true need to be loved that resides in the depths of every human being.

But it’s fatally misguided.

Linda Creed wrote the words to this song while going through a struggle with breast cancer. The lyrics attempt to express her feelings about coping with a terminal illness and being a young mother. She died at the age of 37.

Yet as much as I sympathize with her plight, the song is wrong.

She looked inward when she should have looked upward. She learned to depend upon herself when she should have learned to depend upon God. The greatest love of all is not in learning to love yourself, but in receiving a love that is greater than we could ever know.

The greatest love of all is the love that God demonstrated for you when He sent His Son Jesus into this world to die on the cross for the sin of all mankind. The greatest love of all is a love that never disappoints, never grows weary, never fails and never ends. The greatest love of all is a love that “reaches to the heavens” (Ps. 36:5), a love that “surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19), and a love that lays down its own life for its friends (John 15:13).

You will never find the greatest love of all by learning to love yourself, but you will find it when you learn to look to the cross of Calvary, for “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). You will find it when you learn to receive His forgiveness and put your trust in Jesus, for “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5). You will find it when you learn to obey the Word of God, for “in him truly the love of God is perfected” (1 John 2:5).

This is the love that will help you to cope with the terminal illnesses and loneliness and depression that you may face in life. This is the love that will sustain you and carry you through sorrows and pains and fears and uncertainties. This is a love that will speak peace to your heart when the night is long and cold and the outlook for tomorrow dreary.

Friend, maybe like Whitney laments, you’ve “never found anyone to fulfill my needs.” Meet Jesus. He is able to fulfill every need you have and all the ones you don’t even know about. God knows your need to be loved, and He loves you more than you know. Will you open your heart to receive through faith the real greatest love of all?