Why “Love Conquers All” Isn’t as Cheesy as It Sounds

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “love conquers all”?

For me, it’s Disney movies.

The power of love gets so much coverage in fairy-tale retellings. Kissing the princess turns the frog back into a prince, Rapunzel’s tears save her love interest’s life, Belle’s love turns the Beast back into a human and saves his life—there seems to be a pattern here.

Aside from Disney, so many movies and books talk about the power of love as the most powerful force in the world. It can break curses, redeem villains, and give the protagonist the strength they need to carry on and win the final battle.

What else? The belief that “love conquers all” is also, according to many well-intentioned teenagers, undeniably cheesy.

Did you cringe at the first sentence? Because I know many people who would. When we hear that phrase, we think of all the times we’ve seen the theme on-screen, and we remember how incomplete it felt—so we reject the idea altogether.

But while Disney movies are easy to make fun of, by looking deeper, we might find there’s more truth to the idea than we thought. In fact, the idea that “love conquers all” is fundamentally a very Christian idea, when understood properly.

Incomplete Love

The bare bones “love conquers all” idea we see in so many movies isn’t perfect. But the only reason it doesn’t work is because the message is incomplete: it misrepresents what love actually is.

What’s the world’s definition of love? When it comes to romance, it basically boils down to attraction, physical or otherwise—physical attractiveness plays a part (love at first sight!), but so does personality (you get bonus points if you like dogs). And love isn’t always romantic—the relationship at the heart of Disney’s Frozen is between Elsa and Anna, the love of a sister.

While certain aspects of this definition are right, it’s not complete. For example, do you have to love people you don’t like? That definition seems to say no, they’re not worth your time.

And other aspects have been twisted—like the rise of normalized LGBTQ+ relationships in film, or the romance that causes the protagonist to sacrifice other relationships in her life, like her relationship with her controlling parents, assuming they don’t approve.

This isn’t right, and it’s not helpful. It’s a selective way of looking at love that twists what should be beautiful and true into something that’s self-serving and false.

So, what’s the real version?

Love is the Greatest Commandment

First of all, we need to look at why love is so important; and it is—it’s the most important command in all the Bible.

Matthew 22:35–40 says, “And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him. ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'”

This passage shows us the object of our love: first is God, and second is those around us. Our neighbor doesn’t just mean our friends, family, or the people who live right next to us—it means everyone we come into contact with, whether we know them or not (and, importantly, whether we like them or not).

Loving God and loving our neighbor are the two most important things in the Christian life.
All the Law is summed up in the command to love. Other passages such as Romans 13:9–10 make this very clear.

If love is the most important commandment in the Christian life, don’t you think we should pay attention to that?

Love is Selfless

John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Perhaps the main component of Christian love is that it’s selfless. A loving person considers others more important than themselves, and they’re willing to suffer inconveniences or even pain in order to help the other person.

This is extremely difficult for us to do. Naturally, we look after our own interests and not the interests of others; we consider others less important than ourselves (Philippians 2:3–4).
Ever since the Fall, humans have naturally been under the bondage of sin, which makes it impossible to love others properly.

But that’s before we’re saved. Part of salvation is sanctification: the transforming of a believer from the inside out by the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit’s power enables us to love.

What does selfless love look like? Doing things that benefit others without an ulterior motive. Choosing not to dwell on a friend’s hurtful comment. Picking up after your sibling again without complaining. Giving your time and energy to listen to a struggling friend when there are a dozen other things you’d rather be doing.

It’s not easy. But we should strive to do it anyway. We should aim to model the selfless love of Christ.

Love is a Witness

Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love is essential to presenting a good witness to the world. It’s the most effective method of evangelism and the best apologetics tactic.

Selfless love is unusual. It’s not the normal thing for people to do—so it’ll stand out.

A word of caution: Don’t love others for the purpose of standing out. Love others because it’s the right thing to do. Your job isn’t to be a marketing manager for the Spirit—God can use you however He pleases, and your job is to follow and obey Him.

But wouldn’t it be amazing if people looked at the church and saw a community of people who love each other as Christ loved them? Who routinely lay down their lives for others, who aren’t selfish or indifferent to the struggles of others, who always seek to “[bear] all things, [believe] all things, [hope] all things, [endure] all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7)?

The Love of Christ Conquers All

Love really does conquer all. Jesus died because He loved us (John 3:16), and love is both the greatest commandment and the best way to bless believers and unbelievers alike.

I hope that love becomes a constant practice among the young people of the church. I hope we start looking out for other people more. I hope we learn to show each other grace when we fail and to love each other even though we realize they’re imperfect.

If we get in the habit of real, biblical, selfless love, I wonder what impact the church would have? God’s love knows no bounds.