 |
| Mike Hosey, Elder |
CLICK PLAY TO LISTEN
Podcast Powered By Podbean
In English,
the word "love" is horribly misused and perplexingly overused. Podcast Powered By Podbean
Mostly we
use it to refer to a kind of affection -
that is to say that we use it to describe pleasant, gentle feelings of kindness or liking.
But nearly
everyone realizes that love is not just about good feelings. After all, we
don't always have good feelings about
our spouses, or our children, or our friends, or any of the people that we know we are supposed to always love.
In fact, one
of the things that many people have trouble with in Christianity is the precept
to love God before and more than anything else (Matthew 22:37-40).
They ask, how
can a person love God more than their spouse or their children?
Part of
their difficulty comes from their definition of love. At its core, love is not a matter of
affection. It is, instead, a matter of commitment.
Try this
out: re-read all those passages in the Bible that reference love. Replace love
with commitment.
For God was
so committed to the world that he
gave his only son . . . (John 3:16). You shall be committed to the Lord your God with all of your heart . . .
(Matthew 22:37). Greater commitment
has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).
The idea is
not to always have pleasant feelings about God, anymore than loving your spouse
in marriage means to always have pleasant feelings about him or her. Consider
that God's hatred of sin in humanity must mean that "love" in John
3:16 isn't about pleasant feelings.
Imagine if
we applied this truth to all our relationships. What if we said we were
committed to God instead of saying we loved him? How would we measure that? What
if we said we were committed to our church, our marriage, or our friendships? How
would we measure that? What if instead of saying we loved our neighbors as
ourselves, we said we were committed to them as we are ourselves? How would we
measure that?
Good job Mike. As always, I love your reflections on things. Just a thought, doesn't motive also have to be a part of this love definition? I mean if a person is merely committed to someone or something out of obligation or duty rather than choice, is that true Biblical love? I don't know. I'm just asking the question. I agree totally with commitment as a better way to understand love. However, I do think motive also plays a part. Howso?
ReplyDeleteThank you Anonymous for your kind words. Yes you are correct - motive certainly is a part of the fuller definition - depending, of course, on how you define motive.
ReplyDeleteBut let me ask you a question. Doesn't all commitment have a motive?
If someone is committed to another person solely out of obligation is there true biblical love? I would answer that with, "yes." There is a love for the obligation to do what is right, or to fulfil one's duty. For a Christian, this reflects both a biblical love for God, as well as a biblical love for one's fellow man in general, but not necessarily any individual man in particular. The "motive" is to please God. It may not, however, reflect an affection for the object of the behaviors or sacrifices that arise from the obligations or commitments. But regardless of whether or not you accept that line of reasoning, it is most certainly true that if you say you love someone but produce no volitional commitment to that person, than you do not love that person. As I said in this reflections piece, commitment is the "core" of love, but not necessarily the sole component.
For instance, chocolate ice cream is ice cream. But ice cream is not chocolate. Ice cream is the core component of all ice creams.
In the past I have given a fuller (though not complete) definition for love. Usually I formulate it in two components. 1)Love for Fellow Man: In terms of individuals, love is being committed to the well being of another person. In terms of one's fellow man in general, love is being committed to the well being of mankind, or one's community in general etc... 2)In terms of God, Love is being committed to pleasing God by doing His will.
It's interesting to note that the ancient near east (as far as I can gather) did not view love in the same ways that we do. And it is the culture of the ancient near east from which our Bible arose.
Damon preached a good sermon this past weekend. One of his take home points was that one should make a commitment to the end before one begins. In regards to marriage (which is a formal expression of commitment designed to define the love of a couple) this makes perfect sense. Because if a couple is going to state before God and their fellow man that they are sealing their love with marriage it would be a good idea to commit themselves to the end, because if they do not, it is far more likely that they will fail at the first sign of real difficulty. Their love (commitment to one another) WILL be tested by difficulty!
And that may be the reason that Jesus tells us to count the cost before following (loving) him. One must be ready to make a commitment to the end, because commitment is inextricably wrapped up in love.
I was challenged today regarding the above explanation in the comments. It was pointed out that ice cream has many components and may not serve as a good example here. So I decided to clarify for future readers who may question that. Here goes:
ReplyDeleteCocoa is the core component of Chocolate. But it is not chocolate by itself. And of course chocolate is not cocoa. However, you cannot have chocolate without cocoa. If your "chocolate" does not have cocoa, then it is not chocolate - though it may look and taste like it.
Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel......the fragment of a song...Half remembered names and faces, ....As the images unwind, like the circles that you find in The windmills of your mind! ....What's Love Got To Do With It? Everything, mi Amigo, Todo Todo! Love Your Metaphors Mike. To me it's Simple & I am just starting to follow... GOD=Alpha/Omega+/=Master/Devine Plan...Never Ending or Beginning and Available to all who seek his devine wisdom and life thru the Christ Jesus.....Period end of sentence!.
ReplyDeleteforgot the AMEN! (above):)
ReplyDeleteYep anonymous. Love's got everything to do with commitment and vice versa. Thanks for reading!
ReplyDelete