and by love I don’t mean the passionate feeling Hollywood tries to convince us is love. But what is real Christ-like love? Genuine love for one another, love for siblings, brothers and sisters in Christ, love for people we find difficult to get along with. What does that kind of love look like? How do we learn to love people we don’t find it easy to enjoy?
The first verse that comes to mind for most of us is probably 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 which says,
“love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
At first glance that may seem like a nice, easy list of do’s and don’ts, but I think when it’s unpacked it’s a whole lot more. “Love suffers long and is kind.” Suffers long. Patient. Forbearing. Uncomplaining. I find it interesting that patience and kindness are put together, and I think they are meant to be together for a reason. Sure, sometimes it’s easy to be tolerant of something or someone, but is it easy to always show kindness simultaneously? Maybe it’s easy for some to be kind, but is that kindness coupled with forbearance or seasoned with complaints? When we become practical atheists and are not patient and kind, when we rejoice in iniquity, when we behave rudely, are proud, and seek our own good above the good of others, we are not showing love. We are not behaving as Christ has called us to live, to take up our cross and follow Him. First Corinthians 11:24 says, “let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well being.” We can’t love our siblings, friends, and neighbors when our view of ourselves is so puffed up that we think more highly of our own good rather than the good of others. To be able to “love your neighbor as yourself,” I think it is imperative that we die to self and crucify our wants and wishes before God, giving over the desires of our flesh in order to show Christ’s love to other people.
In all honesty I think we have to look deeper than the surface. The strength and power to love someone doesn’t come from some ability of our own. Any love that we could give comes from God, the author and perfect example of love. I am reminded of Galatians 2:20 which says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” As Christians, the good that we do comes solely from God because apart from Him we are evil and corrupt. We have no love to give but for God’s grace. How much more important than that we be willing and eager to share that love with others. We are taking the undeserved blessing we have been given and pouring it out to others, yes even those among our acquaintances whom we perceive as being undeserving. I think we have to humble ourselves to acknowledge that we are not capable of loving others without God’s help and we have to ask Him to love them through us.
Today’s culture has tried to distort our view of love into a self-centered love. I think as a culture we want to feel. We want to feel accepted, appreciated, valued, comfortable, loved. We have been sucked into the idea that it is all apart of feeling good and feeling kind, regardless of whether we really are. We blindly follow where news and media lead, which is to a self-serving, self-gratifying approach to life. As long as go about giving the idea that we are loving the world, we can spend our main focus making ourselves comfortable. We are surrounded by and, to a great degree, have accepted distorted views of everything -- family relationships and values, government and the role of the Church, love and marriage -- and as Christians we have to be careful to guard against these societal norms in opposition to a Christ-like view. Our views should not be the same as the world’s, and if they are there is something wrong. Love isn’t about us. The whole point is about others. Not living to gratify me, but dying to self to show God’s love to others. It should be a mindset, a way of life, a part are who you are. The world would like nothing more than for us to be trapped into their idea of love. Why? Because it is a distorted view of God’s love and Satan takes great pleasure in seeing Christians accept his skewed versions of truth. What is your view of love?
I'd really love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and criticism. Please share! =)
This is really good, Marissa! I really liked it and probably needed to hear it, since it made me squirm a time or two. :)
ReplyDeletereally good Risse! I enjoy reading your thoughts like this...I haven't seen them in print before ;) Keep posting like this...it's so good for you. I wish I had kept that up after school! (don't JUST post pics....thats what I did.)
ReplyDeleteI would encourage you to use a syn finder (it IS your friend...almost more so than the dictionary!).
"We have no love to give but for God’s grace. How much more important than that we be willing and eager to share that love with others. We are taking the undeserved blessing we have been given and pouring it out to others, yes even those among our acquaintances whom we perceive as being undeserving. I think we have to humble ourselves to acknowledge that we are not capable of loving others without God’s help and we have to ask Him to love them through us." SO true. I need to remember this much more often AND apply it to my life. It really isn't that easy to do.
St. Augustine has a lot about this kind of love in City of God. The world we live in has, maybe unknowingly, missed the mark when it comes to defining love (esp. when it's so much easier to present the happy/easy version on tv). it's like what happened to the paradigm of fathers and the family, which ironically is also based on rightly ordered loves.
Love is selfless. Love is God-honoring. Love is about giving to others from what you have been blessed with.
love ya sister. great job. is this part of the GB papers that you were telling me about?
Thanks Caity! I'm really glad you liked it. Thanks for commenting. I look forward to reading City of God all the more eagerly now. This isn't part of the GB paper, it just sprung from a discussion in family worship the other day and I decided to run with it. =)
ReplyDeleteI love to see you put your thoughts to words. This is an important skill and often helps us process what we are thinking about. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThis was great! We so often throw the word 'love' around, as in, "I love you", "I love ice cream", "I love my dog" and "I love to play in the sun". How can they all possibly mean the same thing? Defining it and finding the biblical principles about it are very important. And then dying to self and giving love to the people in our lives who are harder to love is the action we must take. Love is an action - not a fuzzy, warm feeling we get when someone whispers our name. Love is a command from the Master of Love and we can only love others in His strength and when we see people through His eyes.
ReplyDeleteStarting the day out with easy question, eh?
ReplyDeleteI think that the best way to look at this is that “love” is imaging Christ, living in a Christ-like manner. Romans 12:9-21 is headed “Behave like a Christian” in the New King James:
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
All of this is made more complex, however, by taking a view of Yahweh, realizing that we are made in His image and that we are to image Him by looking at Jesus, the ‘very stamp of God.’ Although we frequently think of Yahweh as a collection of attributes, He is really just one attribute…Yahweh. So His love is His omniscience is His fatherly affection is His wrath is His holiness…etc. We possess many of those attributes as bearers of the image of God, and exercising those attributes in a Christ-like manner is also “love.”
Of course, we possess those attributes in a sinfully incomplete manner, and some of them not at all. We, as ‘creature’ are not omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, etc. And there are some that we are told not to exercise. Vengeance is clearly a part of that attribute, Yahweh, yet we are told in the Romans passage that we are not to exercise it…it is the Lord’s. We are warned in the Scriptures against wrath. But there is a jealousy that proceeds from Love, as does the rebuke and discipline of a loving father. It would be ‘not-love’ to fail to exercise either of those, now wouldn’t it?
Hope this is helpful.
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11
Christ’s blessings upon you.
You are doing such a GREAT job keeping your blog updated and interesting.
ReplyDeleteWow! You really should print or write these thoughts on paper for a book in the future...just in case computers go out of style!JK=) Really though, you are quite the author and I think it is so awesome that you are blessing others with your talent.♡Love Ya!