So Much Work for Love to Do
A lyric from today’s anthem has been echoing: “So much work for love to do.”
It’s a simple line—and somehow it opens everything.
We often talk about love as a feeling: warm, tender, instinctive. But Scripture reminds us that love is not passive or abstract. Love acts. Love labors. Love shows up.
Paul writes, “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). Not just the big moments. Not just the easy ones. All of it. Love is meant to shape the ordinary, the unseen, the daily work of faith.
There is so much work for love to do because the world is aching. There are meals to make, calls to return, apologies to offer, courage to gather. There are neighbors longing to be noticed and burdens that feel too heavy to carry alone. Scripture names this kind of love clearly:
“Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action” (1 John 3:18).
Jesus never treated love as an idea. He embodied it. He touched those others avoided. He crossed boundaries others enforced. He stayed present when walking away would have been easier. When asked to define the greatest commandment, Jesus answered plainly:
“You shall love the Lord your God… and you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
This love is demanding—and life-giving.
In the life of the church, this lyric feels especially true. Love looks like preparing space before anyone arrives. It looks like singing together, even when our hearts feel heavy. It looks like patience, forgiveness, and choosing grace when we disagree. Paul describes it this way:
“Love is patient; love is kind… it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4, 7).
Love also has work to do within us. The slow work of healing. The brave work of forgiveness. The tender work of learning to see ourselves as God sees us. Scripture promises, “The one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). Love changes us as much as it changes the world around us.
“So much work for love to do” is not a complaint—it’s a calling. A reminder that God’s love is still moving, still mending, still inviting us to take part.
“We love because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
May we leave worship not only remembering a beautiful lyric, but responding to a holy invitation.
There is so much work for love to do—and by God’s grace, we are never doing it alone. 💛