It is REALLY hard to write the introduction to a [relatively short] Bible study on love. I am doing edits now and went back to this today. I’d love to know your thoughts. What do you hear people say about love? What do you think about some of these internet discoveries I made regarding the contemporary understanding of love? Please love me by giving me your thoughts:-)!
Love.
Philosophers, poets, moviemakers, and ordinary people have searched to understand and explain love since the beginning of time. A Google search on “studies of love 2012” reveals that the contemporary world thinks of love almost exclusively in terms of romantic or sexual love, although some studies focus on the brain’s response to a mother’s love or supportive relationships. Following current evolutionary science, it is popular to talk about love as a “primitive human instinct.” One MIT professor has determined that romantic love is best understood in the context of economic resources.
In the midst of such cultural conversation, we must ask, to quote Shakespeare out of context, “Is there an ‘ever-fixed mark’ of love?” Is it possible to understand love, and more importantly, is it possible to live love in a world seemingly desperate for it?
The Apostle Paul says it is not only possible; it is essential. In 1 Corinthians 13, often called the “love chapter,” Paul chides the Corinthians for their lack of love by laying out a long description. Paul begins with what would have seemed a bold claim: “without love, I am nothing” (v.2) and concludes with a confident assertion, “Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (v.13, NIV). Sandwiched in between these two statements is a long definition of love in about fourteen parts, depending on how you count. Every time I hear this passage read at a wedding, I wonder if the couple truly believes they will love like this (I know I did!). I’m lost at love with the requirements of “patient and kind” (v. 4), but I’m guessing everyone would admit they sometimes “insist on [their] own way” (v.5) And as nice as it sounds to say love “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things,” (I Cor.13:7), who can really do this?
There is only one answer, the subject of our study and object of our worship – God. God can love like this, does love like this, and amazingly, empowers us by his grace to love like this. Indeed, without love we are nothing, but with God’s love, as we shall see in this study, we become something.
Archive of ‘love’ category
I’m studying the book of Hosea this morning and thinking about our heart’s tendency to seek idols that we think will satisfy our longings. Jan Meyers in her book Listening for Love,speaks of how God lovingly pursues us in these places:
“I don’t know what your golden places are – a relationship, a place, a position from which God seeks to loosen your grip. But as you think of them, I’m sure you would agree: the greatest miracle is that any of our hearts would call God good in the midst of letting go. It’s hard. Relinquishing things that matter to us is difficult. And counting the cost of what we must relinquish in order to follow Jesus (which involves taking inventory of what we’re going to lose) is sad. Over time we realize we are leaving behind things that were not big enough for our heart’s passion anyway, but as it is happening, it hurts like crazy. Only Peter knows what it took, in his heart, to really walk away from his nets. As Jesus says, “Follow me,” as he whispers, “Let go,” I am the only one who knows the personal golden inventory he wants me to relinquish.
Now, before you start thinking of God as one big incinerator full of destruction, remember that love, marriage, children, career, and even reputation are beautiful things. It is the way we cling to them as though they were life itself that the fire is after. Jesus never invites me to eradicate the beautiful, life-giving desire for a baby. But he does invite me and each of the moments with others’ children to let him love me in the midst of the unmet desire. He invites me to see that the desire itself is not life, but rather it leads me to life because it leads me to my need for him.” Jan Meyers, Listening for Love
On Monday, I promised to share a few more gleanings on obedience. Here is a section from Tim Keller’s commentary on First John that also helped me understand obedience more fully.
“The Christian life under this motivation becomes performance-centered rather than acceptance-centered. Acceptance-centered obedience comes from knowing we have already been accepted; it is not obeying to be accepted. It is grace-motivated rather than fear-motivated. We obey because God loves us, not to get him to love us. We seek to please him and walk in his commands out of gratitude for what he has done, not out of fear of what he might do to us.”
“We love because he first loved us.” We must fill our hearts and minds with the understanding that God lavished his love on us while we were still sinners; then we allow that love to spill forth in obedient gratitude. Finally, we must remind ourselves that God has nothing but our good in mind; his commands are for our good. Whenever we obey God to avoid judgment or gain acceptance, we will find the commands burdensome. When we view his commands as arbitrary, harmful, and stunting to our humanity, we will find them burdensome. When that happens, we must argue against such false thinking and convince ourselves of the truths of God’s love, acceptance, and dedication to us.”
http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/hymns/t12.html
How fun is it for my research topic to be “love”! Earlier this week, I posted a ‘love’ quote by J.I. Packer. (I’ve butchered it in trying to explain it, so “>read it here if you’re interested:-). Today I am posting the words and the music to hymn he references. Listen, or better yet, sing along to begin a weekend of worship, remembering his mercy from first to last.
Lyrics here
Sandra McCracken
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8
“‘God is love’ is the complete truth about God so far as the Christian is concerned… Every single thing that happens to him expresses God’s love to him… God is love to him — holy, omnipotent love — at every moment and in every event of every day’s life. Even when he cannot see the why and the wherefore of God’s dealings, he knows that there is love in and behind them, and so he can rejoice always, even when, humanly speaking, things are going wrong. He knows that the true story of his life, when known, will prove to be, as the hymn says, ‘mercy from first to last’ — and he is content.” 1 Understanding God’s love this way is essential for a healthy Christian life. Anything less leaves us impoverished and weak.” J.I. Packer
