Contemplation #70
We love others with our eyes fixed on Jesus. This is a ‘detached’ love because we are oblivious to who it is we are loving for the sake of Christ. If I try and search into others to find a reason to love them, an appealing part of their nature or a pleasing action toward me, I may very well find something to draw my love. But I am loving myself for I am finding in them something I love selfishly in order to love them. A detached love is what we give to others because we love God. There are no conditions . . . no way in which our love is related to who others are or what they do.
There are numerous people that we love in an attached way . . . because of who they are to us. Our family, our friends, fellow believers with whom we share common faith, and many others. These we ought to love also in a detached way irrespective of the human joys we share with them. The real test of our Christian love is whether we have love for others with whom we find nothing personally satisfying.
Contemplation #71
Isn’t such a detached love, loving others in whom we find nothing personally appealing, often called ‘agape’ and defined as the loving action we take toward others? Yes, agape has to do with action and differs from eros (passion) and phileo (brotherly affection). . . but let us not believe that by simply doing good to others we have fulfilled the work of agape.
By speaking of agape as the highest form of love and describing it as a choice to do good for others, sometimes we let ourselves ‘off the hook’ of having to feel kindly, true compassion, and real emotion toward those who do not appeal to us naturally. It is certainly godly to choose to do good to others and agape them in this way, but we have not truly learned love if we do so grudgingly, disdainfully, and without affection. We err when we make agape strictly an action which can be legalistically fulfilled and call that the highest love. Agape is a love of choice and like all love is proved through action, but it is also a love of the heart just as sure as eros and phileo . . . though for a different reason. Let us not settle for acting good toward others as being love for the sake of Christ, but let us seek heart-felt love that weeps over the city where live our executioners.
Contemplation #72
How do we learn detached love? Only God can teach us to love as God loves. When does God teach us this love? When we intentionally seek his teaching. How do we seek this teaching? By placing ourselves where God can do this work. And where is that?
I do not learn to love like God when I am with those whom I love naturally, humanly. When I am with family and friends my human affections will be tested, but even then there are still often selfish reasons to love when there are difficulties in those relationships. Often, when the selfish reasons disappear, divorce occurs and friendships end because there was no godly love.
A love toward others for the sake of God is learned not by watching the evening news when we see others who are far from us, but by being face to face with those with whom we have no human affection. By purposefully putting ourselves before others, and seeking in that moment God’s work in teaching us to have love where there is no earthly reason for love, we will learn to love for the sake of God. Unfortunately, many carefully control their associations so as to never come face to face with anyone but those they can love humanly. They are careful even in church to stay with those with whom there is a natural affection. Love for the sake of Christ is learned when we are with those who can be loved no other way.
We love others with our eyes fixed on Jesus. This is a ‘detached’ love because we are oblivious to who it is we are loving for the sake of Christ. If I try and search into others to find a reason to love them, an appealing part of their nature or a pleasing action toward me, I may very well find something to draw my love. But I am loving myself for I am finding in them something I love selfishly in order to love them. A detached love is what we give to others because we love God. There are no conditions . . . no way in which our love is related to who others are or what they do.
There are numerous people that we love in an attached way . . . because of who they are to us. Our family, our friends, fellow believers with whom we share common faith, and many others. These we ought to love also in a detached way irrespective of the human joys we share with them. The real test of our Christian love is whether we have love for others with whom we find nothing personally satisfying.
Contemplation #71
Isn’t such a detached love, loving others in whom we find nothing personally appealing, often called ‘agape’ and defined as the loving action we take toward others? Yes, agape has to do with action and differs from eros (passion) and phileo (brotherly affection). . . but let us not believe that by simply doing good to others we have fulfilled the work of agape.
By speaking of agape as the highest form of love and describing it as a choice to do good for others, sometimes we let ourselves ‘off the hook’ of having to feel kindly, true compassion, and real emotion toward those who do not appeal to us naturally. It is certainly godly to choose to do good to others and agape them in this way, but we have not truly learned love if we do so grudgingly, disdainfully, and without affection. We err when we make agape strictly an action which can be legalistically fulfilled and call that the highest love. Agape is a love of choice and like all love is proved through action, but it is also a love of the heart just as sure as eros and phileo . . . though for a different reason. Let us not settle for acting good toward others as being love for the sake of Christ, but let us seek heart-felt love that weeps over the city where live our executioners.
Contemplation #72
How do we learn detached love? Only God can teach us to love as God loves. When does God teach us this love? When we intentionally seek his teaching. How do we seek this teaching? By placing ourselves where God can do this work. And where is that?
I do not learn to love like God when I am with those whom I love naturally, humanly. When I am with family and friends my human affections will be tested, but even then there are still often selfish reasons to love when there are difficulties in those relationships. Often, when the selfish reasons disappear, divorce occurs and friendships end because there was no godly love.
A love toward others for the sake of God is learned not by watching the evening news when we see others who are far from us, but by being face to face with those with whom we have no human affection. By purposefully putting ourselves before others, and seeking in that moment God’s work in teaching us to have love where there is no earthly reason for love, we will learn to love for the sake of God. Unfortunately, many carefully control their associations so as to never come face to face with anyone but those they can love humanly. They are careful even in church to stay with those with whom there is a natural affection. Love for the sake of Christ is learned when we are with those who can be loved no other way.
posted by Greg at 7:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home