Once the contraceptive pill was available around 1961, it became possible for women to enjoy the same sexual freedom as men had enjoyed forever. The Pill was hailed as the precursor of the wonderful new life of love and freedom, and it spelt the end of abortions.
Sadly, nearly 40 years on, we are only too well aware that many of those dreams were simply pie in the sky. The problem with 'free love' was that it turned out not to be love, but to be simply free sex. And few seemed to recognise the difference.
If anything, the situation is worse today. Sex is portrayed by the media much more explicitly than it was in the Sixties, but it still seems to be promoted as love and therefore the route to happiness, despite the huge rise in abortions, relationship breakdowns, divorce and terrifying depths of unhappiness.
So if it's not sex, or not just sex, what it is this love upon which the Christian gospel is based and about which Jesus spoke frequently? What is love?
In this passage from John 14, Jesus seems to be saying much the same as Saint Augustine - love God and do as you like. He doesn't say, "Keep my commandments in order to love me," but puts it the other way round. He says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."
But he seems to recognise that we need help to love in such a profound way. He promises the Holy Spirit to his friends, a spirit of truth which will be within each person. When truth is a part of love, then all shallow imitations of love can be spotted for what they really are. And Jesus goes on to say, "those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."
But it seems enormously risky. If I love God, but do exactly as I like, what would I find myself doing? Would hidden depths of anger suddenly emerge and erupt into violence? Would hidden depths of passion encourage me to allow my eyes and heart to stray? Would a deep and unrecognised jealousy overflow into malicious actions against my neighbours? What would be the result if I allowed my inner self to be seen at the surface?
Surely unless I curb my inner feelings and desires and consciously try to act in a God-like way, my inner badness which I keep carefully hidden would rise up and overwhelm me with terrible and terrifying consequences?
Christianity has always been presented as a moral religion, especially to children and young people. As Karl Marx astutely remarked, "Religion is the opium of the people." For many years Christianity was seen a more as a way of keeping the masses in order than as a way of a liberating them.
There are still cries for the Ten Commandments to be reintroduced at every opportunity, as though simply memorising them would solve all the moral problems of our age.
Much of the thinking behind the desire for all children to share in collective worship at school seems to be more about instilling moral sense into children than about their spiritual needs.
Clearly Christianity is a moral religion, but perhaps over the generations the Church has approached it from the wrong angle. Apart from the religious leaders of the day, Jesus rarely reproached anybody for their sinfulness. He was much more concerned with offering them life in all its fullness than in telling them how bad they were or how they ought to behave.
None of the instructions in the New Testament on Christian behaviour came from the lips of Jesus. They all came from leaders of the early Church, such as Paul and the writer of the Pastoral Epistles. Even in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was more concerned to tell people how to become happy than to give them instructions about their behaviour.
Perhaps real love is something to do with daring to be ourselves, whatever the consequences. Perhaps Christians who love God, should take the risk of finding out who they really are deep inside, and becoming that person. Perhaps God, who loves every person whatever they're like inside, wants people who are real; people who fail, people who are sometimes nasty, people who get angry or jealous or depressed or lazy.
According to Jesus, what God doesn't want is people who are hypocrites; Christians who wear a shining facade of goodness and who disapprove of any negative emotions or actions.
We are called to become perfect, to become like God, but our mistake is in thinking that can somehow be achieved. Goodness isn't it achievable, even with God's help. Goodness is the inevitable result of love, love which is honest and true. Goodness is the fruit of a Christian life, and it follows honesty and real love as surely as apples follow apple blossom. And it requires no further effort on our behalf than simply daring to be ourselves and trusting God.
God has made it possible for us to become good by dwelling within us. Because we cannot achieve goodness by our own efforts, God himself is within each human being, loving each human being. Those who dare to reach the centre of their being, who dare to allow the dark side of themselves to surface by becoming real, enable the God within space to grow and develop.
So perhaps St Augustine's advice is good after all, "love God, and do as you like."
