Since love is the singularly necessary basis for Christian morality, we need to know what that is. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a gives a depiction of the biblical concept of love.
Love has a huge capacity to endure patiently. It is a "slow burn fuse", a bearing of offenses and injuries without retaliation. Instead of vengeance, love seeks to be kind. In this it is virtuous and benevolent, always seeking to be useful rather than using, beneficial rather than benefited, pleasant and mild rather than heard.
Love may have zeal, but one thing it has no zeal for is the desire to possess. It doesn't wish it had what others had. It doesn't envy others their good fortune. It doesn't covet. Love, instead, is content. Nor is love boastful. One who loves doesn't put himself on display. No, when you love, you put the loved one on display. The primary concern is the well-being of the one who is loved. The one who loves is not the primary issue nor the focus.
Love is not arrogant. The one who loves doesn't present himself or herself as something worthy of attention. It is not lofty or proud. It's not full of hot air. Instead, love knows how to behave. Love isn't rude or inappropriate. It isn't indecent. No, in fact it is presentable, appropriate, respectful, even polite.
Love has an unusual aim. While the most natural human characteristic is self-interest, love does not seek that. Instead, love aims for the interest of others. In this, then, love is perhaps one of the most foreign concepts to Natural Man. Self-interest is secondary in love. It considers the one loved as more important than the one who loves and the best interest of the loved one is the primary aim of love.
Love is not irritable or resentful. No, that's too mild. Love is not scornful or easily provoked or prone to exasperation. (Remember that patient endurance.) And being not easily upset, love doesn't keep score. Everyone suffers loss at the hands of others. Love, however, doesn't keep a record book. It lets those losses go. It doesn't track debits, so to speak. There is no reckoning of the bad things that have been done to the one who loves. Those just don't count.
Love includes the concept of joy. Love makes you happy. Be careful, though. Love doesn't make you rejoice at just anything. Love thrives on truth. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love shouts hallelujah to good doctrine, good morality, a proper reflection of reality, to all things true. At the same time, love has the opposite response to sin, to injustice, to unrighteousness of heart and life, to violations of God's law. Love doesn't support evil, but rejoices in truth.
Love holds up some tremendous "alls". Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. In bearing all things, love provides a covering, a protection. It is like a good roof, concealing the loved one from errors, faults, trouble. On the other hand, love stands up to perceived slights, unkindnesses, unpleasantry aimed at the one who loves. Love believes the best of the loved one. It believes the best even against the evidence. It believes the best even against much evidence. Love stands with joyful confidence and expectation for the best for the loved one. Even when spurned, love keeps coming back seeking what's best for the one who is loved. And love stands. It stands patiently. It stands bravely. It stands calmly. It stands as it covers and protects, stands as it believes the best even when it may be hard, stands when things look hopeless. It endures all of the worst in search of all of the best.
Perhaps the most lost component of love today is its endurance. Love never ends. It doesn't cease. It doesn't perish. It doesn't fall away. It cannot be cast off or run aground. It cannot be powerless or ineffectual. It never fails.
I want you to notice something in this descriptive pile. Notice that there is nothing in this explanation that suggests "Love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person, a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. Love is often sexual passion or desire." That's what our dictionaries tell us. That's not what this passage tells us. Now, let me be clear. I am not suggesting that tenderness, affection, warm personal attachment, or possibly even sexual passion are not or cannot be a natural by-product of love. By that I mean that genuine love ought to produce some of this. Nonetheless, none of it is "love", which means that none of it is the proper definition of love from a biblical perspective. Since we are commanded to love, love is a choice we make. The feelings associated with love will likely follow the choice to love, but love, as defined here, is something we choose regardless of feelings. Conversely, that which we do out of warm feelings may or may not be love. Let's not get confused.
2 comments:
Of the three posts on the topic, I chose this one on which to comment, because it describes what love is and isn't. Yet, as you know, there are those who proclaim that all that love is is present between those who indulge in immoral acts and thus those acts, and the union of the two can be called "blessed" and worthy of recognition. Beyond the obvious argument against such nonsense, that any act based on sin cannot be made "non-sinful" because of such claims regarding the presence of love as it is described here, how would you respond?
Since "Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth", then indulging in immoral acts and calling it "love" is a contradiction. Since "Love doesn't support evil", to say that committing that which the Bible calls "sin" in the name of "love" is an absolute violation of biblical love.
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