How Did Love Get a Bad Name? I don't think it was Bon Jovi

  The song "You Give Love a Bad Name" has lyrics we can use to talk about what love means today. It is people's bad behavior and the way that they talk which has given love a bad name in today's society and culture. Biblically, love is a concept which praiseworthy and excellent. It is completely different from lust and sex (eros) and it is a powerful thing from God. Let us look at the lyrics to the Bon Jovi song. This is an excerpt only from the first verse and chorus.

"Shot through the heart and you're to blame
Darlin' you give love a bad name

An angel's smile is what you sell
You promise me heaven then put me through hell
Chains of love got a hold on me
When passion's a prison you can't break free

Oh! You're a loaded gun, yeah
Oh! There's nowhere to run
No one can save me
The damage is done

Shot through the heart and you're to blame
You give love a bad name
(Bad name)
I play my part and you play your game
You give love a bad name
(Bad name)
Hey, you give love a bad name...."

What kind of age do we live in where such lyrics can be sung with sincerity? When I was in grade school that song was held in high regard as the latest and greatest thing. The kids were singing it on the playground. 
Let us now consider a Biblical passage about love.

1 Corinthians 13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Excellence of Love

13 "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if Isurrender my body [a]to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is notarrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, butrejoices with the truth; 7 [b]bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of [c]prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I [d]became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror [e]dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the [f]greatest of these is love."

    Endquote

   This is such a far cry from the world's thinking that it is a shame. People think that love has to be returned for people to give it. That is not the example that Jesus Christ set.  He wept over Jerusalem and willingly laid His life down for people, even in spite of the sin of the city (check out John 15:13). Love never fails essentially. Look at what he said in Matthew 23:

Lament over Jerusalem

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Endquote

   Technically the city was judged and brought to ruins many years later, but the sentiments of Christ are in the Word of God. Love is a notion which is in the sum of the Law and the Prophets as stated by Jesus Christ.

Matthew 22:36-40New American Standard Bible (NASB)

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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.’38 This is the great and [a]foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

endquote

   These are the greatest commands people can follow and they are truly excellent. Love, Biblically, is an excellent notion. Yet, when people talk about love in social conversation, there is a confusion of terms because the meaning has been confused by bad behavior and very bad notions and inklings.