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The value of prophecy is not
in knowing what will happen, but why it will happen and making the life
choices that such knowledge requires. I Corinthians 13 If I
speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding
gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries
and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to
the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always
protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there
are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass
away. For we know in part and we
prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall
see face to face. Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the
greatest of these is love. Working Backward to
Love (with a Capital 'L') When we go on a trip in our automobiles we drive from point A
to point B. If we get turned around
on our journey and find ourselves heading back to point A, we must change
direction or never reach our destination.
It's that way with Love (with a capital 'L') or what theologians call
'agape love', and what I will call God-Love. Most of us have the capacity for what some call human, or
natural, love (with a little 'l').
That is, we can care enough about someone to wish them well and to do
something to help secure their wellbeing.
This kind of love is typically associated with, and motivated by,
feelings. And there are wide ranges
of feelings that can motivate us to this kind of love, such as: passion,
fondness and affection; compassion, empathy and sympathy; trust, gratitude
and loyalty; self-interest, self-worth and selfishness. We love ourselves, usually motivated by
self-interest, self-worth or selfishness.
Even when we don't particularly like ourselves we wish ourselves well
and try to do things we think will secure our wellbeing. Most of us love our families and our
friends, and perhaps our larger circle of acquaintances and fellow citizens
(at least some of them), and perhaps even all mankind (at least
theoretically), usually on a sliding scale from greater to lesser as we go
down the list from ourselves.
Somewhere along the scale we say we love God. Some unfortunate people may be unable to love anything but
themselves. Others, more unfortunate
still, may not be able to even manage self-love. And there are, of course, things other than people that we can
love. We can love our country. We can love our pets. We can love special places (perhaps our
hometown, 'the old home place' or a favorite vacation spot). We can even love things, such as music,
art, books, cars and homes, money, power and influence. However, for the purpose of my discussion
here, I want to focus on love of people, including ourselves and others. So how is Love-with-a-capital-'L' different from
love-with-a-little-'l'? The
scriptures teach us that God is Love.
For you and me specifically, I think this means that His divine personality
is defined wholly by a quality of character that translates into His total
commitment to each of us, such that everything He says and does is designed
to secure our wellbeing. In other
words, everything God tells us to do is good for us, and everything God tells
us not to do, if we do it, is bad for us.
Adam and Eve learned that lesson the hard way in the Garden of
Eden. And too often we, too, learn it
the hard way – if we learn it at all.
God's Love is totally outward focused. It doesn't start with Him loving himself and working outward to
His creation or His creatures (such as you and me) to greater or lesser
degrees. God is Love. That's what that means. If it were possible for all of us to
receive His Love, and then share that Love with the world around us, we would
truly Love one another (as He Loves each of us) and we wouldn't have many of
the problems that plague the world today, such as hate, envy, selfishness,
favoritism, jealousy, prejudices of all kinds, and pride (the kind of pride whereby
we think more highly of ourselves than we should, and we put ourselves before
all others). But we can't fully receive God’s Love. There's something about us that gets in
the way. And it's called
'ourselves'. Specifically, God
doesn't love Himself more than He Loves you or me – God is Love. He doesn't Love some of us more than
others, and some not at all. He
doesn't Love us more today and less tomorrow because of His mood or because
we behave better today than we will tomorrow. God's Love is totally focused on each of us, and His Love is
totally unconditional. Conversely,
our love is first focused inward, on ourselves (let's be honest) and, by
greater and lesser degrees, on others.
Our love is also conditional.
We love others because of who they are - at our better moments we love
our families and our friends, despite the hurt they may do us. We love others because we can trust them
to look out for our interests, or because we can depend on them for help and
support or for something we need or want – a lover, a benefactor, a patron,
our family, our friends. To try and describe God-Love is difficult because none of us
has ever experienced it to the degree necessary to fully understand it. It's like trying to describe color, a
mountain vista or a sunrise seascape to a man blind from birth. Yet some of us understand this God-Love
better than others. Some of us have
in fact begun to experience it, to a lesser or greater degree, like a man
blind from birth beginning to gain his sight. I'm talking here about the Christian experience. When we really accept Christ as our
personal Lord and Savior (and not just go through the motions, as some do),
we begin to experience and understand something of this God-Love. Salvation is indeed our first conscious
encounter with this God-Love. By
Salvation I mean the process by which we first realize our sinfulness, our
need for forgiveness and a right relationship with God, and our inability to
secure this forgiveness or relationship by our own efforts. When we finally realize that we can have
this forgiveness and relationship as a gift from God, despite who we are or
the hurt we cause Him, and then by faith receive it, we begin a process
whereby we start to see, with spiritual eyes blinded from birth, the God-Love
I'm talking about. Without going into all the 'theological' details and
mechanics, I think the process works something like this. Christ said that if we accept His
Salvation and submit to His Lordship by faith, then we are forgiven our sins,
are made members of God's family, and obligate ourselves to keep His
commandments. And the greatest of
these commandments, according to Him, are to love God with all our soul,
mind, and strength, and to love other people as we love ourselves. These two commandments are the foundation
of all other commandments recorded in scripture. This is Love with a capital 'L' (at least in as much as it
pertains to us). But how do we Love
in this way? Is it a feeling that
compels us to do something to please God or help another? In fact it is simply this: We Love God when we keep His commandments. That is, we Love God when we do what He
says we should do, as recorded in scripture.
How do we know we Love God? By
keeping His commandments. If we are
at least trying to keep His commandments (it's hard), we can know that we
Love God (with a capital 'L'). If we
are not trying to keep His commandments, we do not Love God (His definition,
not mine). It has nothing to do with
feelings, but with doing. At least,
it has nothing to do with feelings at first. And one of His commandments (one of the most important) is
that we are to Love (with a capital ‘L’) others as ourselves. Not some others, and not sometime, and not
to a lesser degree than we love ourselves.
We are to Love all others, and at all times, and to the same degree as
we love ourselves. We are to turn the
other cheek. We are to pray for those
who despitefully use us. We are to
give to, and do for, them that need and ask, and often give to, and do for,
them that need but don't ask. Some
scriptures even suggest that there are times and circumstances when we should
not retaliate against those who would take advantage of us and not seek
revenge on those who would hurt us.
Like I said, it's hard to keep God's commandments. I have a real hard time with these last
ones myself. Yet God has promised us
divine help if we want it, and we should at least be trying if we are to Love
Him, and others, as we ought. And it
has nothing to do with feelings. It
has to do with doing. At least, it
has nothing to do with feelings at first. So what's the relationship between doing and feelings? Feelings are not to be discounted. In as much as we feel God-Love we should
encourage it in ourselves. But at
first most of us will not feel very Loving.
That's because of our fallen estate.
We're blind to God-Love until God opens our eyes to it. That's where keeping His commandments come
in. God Loves, because God is
Love. We Love because we are becoming
Love. We've gone far is the wrong
direction, and when we become Christians it's like reversing directions and
going the right way. It's one example
I can think of where we have to put the cart before the horse (doing before
feeling). In other words, we will begin to experience God-Love in
ourselves when we begin trying to keep God's commandments, including the one
about Loving others as we love ourselves.
We just do what God says we should do (keep His commandments) and, if
we do it for the right reason (that is, because we want to Love God by
keeping His commandments and to experience and practice this God-Love) it
will come to us. Indeed, we will
begin a process whereby we eventually become like God. And God is Love. Let me say here that motivation is important. If we do what God tells us to do for any
reason other than wanting to Love God by keeping His commandments, and
thereby begin to experience, practice and become this God-Love, then we may
be guilty of sin. We may be guilty of
the sin of selfishness if we do it because we think we will get some kind of
reward (other than the satisfaction, peace, joy and affirmation that comes
with this God-Love). We may be guilty
of the sin of faithlessness if we do it because we think it will earn us
favor with God, or that somehow we can obligate Him. We may be guilty of the sin of hypocrisy
if we do it for any reason other than a desire to Love God by keeping His
commandments and to experience, practice and become God-Love. A lot of harm is done to Christianity, and
to the souls of those who might have otherwise become Christians, by those
who profess Christ as Lord and Savior and then go about 'doing good' for the
wrong reasons. Such reasons will
always be found out. Most of us probably have to start small (with baby steps), like
not cussing out the fool who cuts in front of us in traffic, but instead
sincerely praying for his or her safety.
If done for the right reason (as noted above) we will be surprised by
the results. Or how about the next time someone spreads malicious gossip
about you at work? Try praying for
them, and maybe next time you take something special into work (like cookies
or candy) make a point to see that they especially get some. And if you're not in the habit of taking
good things to work for the enjoyment of your coworkers, maybe you should
start doing that, too, on occasion. Try it sometime, and then tell me you can feel the same
aggravation you felt towards that other driver or coworker when first they
cut you off or spread rumors about you.
I bet you can't. And that's
just the beginning of truly Loving God and others, and of experiencing,
practicing, and eventually becoming, God-Love. I John 5: 1 – 5 (New International Version) Everyone
who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves
the father loves his child as well.
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God
and carrying out his commands. This
is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our
faith. Who is it that overcomes the
world? Only he who believes that
Jesus is the Son of God. |
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