All we need is love?
First, I'd like to apologize for not posting a new topic on Table Talk until Wednesday. Excuses are being left at the door, so I'll get on with the discussion.
This week I want to put a discussion on the Table which may challenge our thinking a bit. At Theophany on Sunday night we spoke about 'loving one another' and living out those commands that we find from Jesus in John 15. Let's fact it, though. Loving one another is ambiguous in John's Gospel and it doesn't get much clearer in the other long 'love scripture' in 1 John 4. We know we're supposed to love, but what does love look like?
This is a huge topic, and I only introduced one suggestion of how that happens in the sermon, saying that 'love is presence and presence is love.' That's one way in our culture we can love, but there's so much to be said on this subject.
'Love' is a popular subject in our culture, but the question I have is this, 'is there a difference between the way that Christians talk about love and the way that the world talks about love?' In the 1960s John Lennon famously sang, 'all you need is love.' A few years earlier, another Englishman, C.S. Lewis had something to say in his book The Four Loves to challenge an idea of love like John Lennon's. Lewis said (paraphrase), 'John's first epistle is correct to say, 'God is love,' yet the opposite of that statement is not true. Love is not God.' Do you agree with Lewis? Is there truth to John Lennon's lyric? Is there a difference between Love according to the world's defition and the love which Jesus speaks about?
Ok...I'll wait to hear from some of you on this matter. If this is too complicated a question, just say the word and I'll send another apology and offer another posting. Thought I would take the risk and see what would happen. At least it's now on the Table!
Jack
This week I want to put a discussion on the Table which may challenge our thinking a bit. At Theophany on Sunday night we spoke about 'loving one another' and living out those commands that we find from Jesus in John 15. Let's fact it, though. Loving one another is ambiguous in John's Gospel and it doesn't get much clearer in the other long 'love scripture' in 1 John 4. We know we're supposed to love, but what does love look like?
This is a huge topic, and I only introduced one suggestion of how that happens in the sermon, saying that 'love is presence and presence is love.' That's one way in our culture we can love, but there's so much to be said on this subject.
'Love' is a popular subject in our culture, but the question I have is this, 'is there a difference between the way that Christians talk about love and the way that the world talks about love?' In the 1960s John Lennon famously sang, 'all you need is love.' A few years earlier, another Englishman, C.S. Lewis had something to say in his book The Four Loves to challenge an idea of love like John Lennon's. Lewis said (paraphrase), 'John's first epistle is correct to say, 'God is love,' yet the opposite of that statement is not true. Love is not God.' Do you agree with Lewis? Is there truth to John Lennon's lyric? Is there a difference between Love according to the world's defition and the love which Jesus speaks about?
Ok...I'll wait to hear from some of you on this matter. If this is too complicated a question, just say the word and I'll send another apology and offer another posting. Thought I would take the risk and see what would happen. At least it's now on the Table!
Jack
posted by Theophany@Church Street | 10:40 AM
8 Comments:
I never thought I'd have this opportunity, but if you haven't already seen it, you have to try to get your hands on "The Flame" by Rob Bell. It's very MTV in it's production value, but it addresses these very questions in a very deep way. You can find a clip of it @ Nooma.com
Jack you are right that there are many ways to think about love and much to say on the subject. One way which I have understood love is that it is a verb. Love is action. And it is linked to conscious choice. After all, Jesus would not have commanded us to do something if we could not choose to do it. (that is; if it just fell on us in some mysterious way)
Therefore, as a Christian I am to choose to love and that choice will lead to action on my part. I speak and nod to the sad-of-face instead of walking by without seeing. I give to the poor and needy even though it costs me. I overlook the loud mouthed atheist's words and pray for her.
John Lennon had it partly right: All this world, and we as individuals, need IS love....once we accept Jesus as our Lord. For it is He who empowers us to love unconditionally and unconditional love will overcome adversity.
Man, these have been some great posts. I've heard wonderful things about these Nooma videos and will have to certainly check them out. And Sara and Jeff have given me some wonderful insight too. More and more I'm hearing the Spirit say to me that love indeed is action and that that action is a choice. In fact, Christ has chosen we are to love; we do not get to choose. We receive a command.
I must say that over and over again that the witness of our lives keeps coming into my mind as the epistle of love we are writing. When I posted this topic, I didn't think of the internal struggles of the Beatles and all that was CONTRARY to love in their lives. To be sure, Christians struggle to live lives which are NOT contradictory, so we confess that we are not perfect. Yet one thing that I hear the Spirit saying through this series of posts is this, 'the love which Jesus talks about is the love which restores.' And there is no shortcut to restoring love than through the avenues of confession and repentance. Here 1 John 1 is better than any lyric on an album. If we confess sin, God forgives and cleanses.
Beautiful thoughts. Please keep them coming. I'll be on vacation this week, but will still check in. These conversations have fed me today.
One more comment...
Love the quotations from the 77s! Beautiful words
I agree that love is a choice in most instances, at least love that is lasting. I choose to love my wife, luckily it isn't hard. However, there are days that we certainly may not like each other much, but none-the-less we choose to love.
It is that same with God for me. I choose to love God each day, even thought for whatever reason I may not feel like it. I guess that sounds pretty simplistic, it's working for me right now.
Feelings change, love is constant.
I am so glad to see this question. I think you hear from many areas that 'all you need to do is love'. Or 'that person loved, therefore that person will go to heaven.' When those statements are made, it seems to me that Christ's death on the cross and all that it means becomes minimized. All people love in one way or another, but not all people are born again by faith in Jesus Christ. True, many who call themselves Christian may not exhibit love as they should and that is sad,(and that is another sermon) but Jack I would like you, as our leader, to expound on this a bit more and share your personal thoughts. I am afraid I haven't expressed myself very well and for that I apologize, but I think the question you have asked is so important.
To address the questions raised by the anonymous posting....
As Christians shaped by the writings of 1 John ('love one another...God is love') I think we need to applaud those outside of the church for their acts of love and for their care for those who might be forgotten. A pratical example of this might be the United Way or its partnering agencies. I worked for the United Way for a short time and saw that they met needs which the church could not even dream of meeting. We need to bless the work going on in agencies like that, perhaps through volunteering or simply through a word of support.
Yet, at the same time, Jesus has not chosen non-profit agencies to be the light of the world--that identity has been given to his church. Almost all non-profit charities with whom I work have love overflowing, and it is indeed beautiful. Yet there would be some offense in such places to say, 'I love you with the love of Jesus.' Generic love is acceptable in the world; the love of Jesus can be offensive to some.
I give that preface to simply say that Christians have a different definition of love. Love for Jesus is following him through a straight and narrow gate. Jesus understood that all our loves present competition to the one love which God has for us ('unless you hate father and mother..you cannot be my disciple.') Through a bit of hyperbole, Jesus is showing us that even love within family may compete for our love for him.
Ultimately, the Christian definition of love will be radically different. For those who believe in a vague idea of God, that acts of love alone are good enough for us to enter into eternity, there is a humbling moment when we read, 'by GRACE you have been saved through faith..it is not your OWN doing, it is the gift of God' in Ephesians 2.8. We must move closer and closer to the understanding that it is what JESUS has done that gives us a new definition of love, and a new understanding of life--both now and in eternity.
This doesn't resolve or 'answer' anything, but I wanted to offer a few additional comments based on the appeal from teh previous posting. Thanks for keeping the conversation going.
Jack
Excellent, thank you, Jack
Post a Comment
<< Home