Day 50 - Love

Arguably the most used and least understood word, ‘love’. It’s used so often and so widely that it probably has become almost meaningless. For we who follow Christ, it is of surpassing importance, so it’s worth the while thinking about this issue. Let’s begin by thinking about confusion.

Firstly, it’s often used to express a preference. “Would you like another piece of cake?” “Yes I’d love one”.

Next, it is used to explain personal relationships that are more to do with hormones than a Way of Life.

Then, often in religious contexts, people confuse conscience with love.

I could go on, but in this explanation, I’ll mention another use of the word in manipulation of others – “if you loved me you would X…”, where X is something that the recipient of the emotional blackmail is not keen on.

The problem arises because, unusually for our language, English is impoverished in having only the word ‘love’ to express what other languages mean.

The simple explanation is from the Greek that the New Testament is usually expressed by. Preachers and others who know about this often say that agape is the proper Christian expression of love, that which demands sacrificing yourself. That seems about right, but if, like me, you want to understand better, then Jesus in John 13:34-35 makes it really clear what His New Commandment really is. ‘Love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, by this will everyone know that you are my disciples’.

That sense of Love contains self-sacrifice for sure, but if you really think about just how much Jesus shows His Love, it becomes much more.

Later in the New Testament, we learn why we have a huge problem. 1 John: 15-17 tells us that our human nature craves for the things of the world, and that this means that the Love of God is not in us. That passage ends with another thing to think deeply about “The world and its desires pass away, but the person who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:17)

The passage says that people actually love the boastings of ownership. Honestly, this season really confirms that. I could list the trappings of excess and be called Grinch-like. You know too that the sense of ‘Love came down at Christmas’ is quite difficult to feel in our generations, so I’ll simply return to my main point, which is what Love is, and how to know it. “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).

Fellow pilgrims, as ever, Jesus makes it really simple to understand – if groups of His followers were to be found loving each other as Jesus loves us, then everyone around would know where to find His disciples. On our own, as individuals, we won’t have the strength or the resolve to maintain the effort. Certainly, practice helps, but learning to rely upon Jesus’ Spirit really needs the support of others of like mind. On rare occasions you can feel it when the effort is made. Make those efforts more frequent and you have a Church. I think that I once heard that this was called Congregationalism?

John Cartwright