What's Love Got to Do with It?

Tevye: Do you love me?

Golde: Do I what?

Tevye: Do you love me?

Golde: Do I love you? With our daughters getting married and this trouble in the town, you're upset, you're worn out. Go inside, go lie down! Maybe it's indigestion!

Tevye: Golde I'm asking you a question ... Do you love me?

Golde: You're a fool.

Tevye: I know ... But do you love me?

Golde: Do I love you? For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow ... After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?

Tevye: Golde, the first time I met you was on our wedding day. I was scared.

Golde: I was shy.

Tevye: I was nervous.

Golde: So was I.

Tevye: But my father and my mother said we'd learn to love each other, and now I'm asking, Golde ... Do you love me?

Golde: I'm your wife.

Tevye: I know ... But do you love me?

Golde: Do I love him? For twenty-five years I've lived with him, fought him, starved with him. Twenty-five years my bed is his. If that's not love, what is?

Tevye: Then you love me?

Golde: I suppose I do.

Tevye: And I suppose I love you too.

Both: It doesn't change a thing, but even so, after twenty-five years it's nice to know! (“Do You Love Me?” from Fiddler on the Roof)

Are Tevye and Golde in love? What evidence do you have to support your answer?

How does their love differ from the way the world usually talks about love?

1 John 5:3a says, “This is love for God: to obey his commands.” List as many interpretations as you can for this verse.

How do you decide which interpretation is correct?

In Hebrew, the word for loving affection is chiba and the word for obligation is chova (in Hebrew, as in English, the “b” and “v” sounds are very similar; in Hebrew, they are the same letter!). Read 1 John 5:1-5.

What does it mean to love, to obey, and to overcome the world?

What is your obligation to God, your neighbor, and yourself?

Where do you need to overcome the world within your own life?