Love is one of the most important aspects of the gospels, otherwise when Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, He wouldn’t have answered what He did. Such an answer must have realllly shocked the people at the time: “What do you mean love?? You mean to say there’s no easy 3-step-process to make it into Heaven??”
I still wonder, how does one love God with all his heart, might, mind, and strength? I think you’re right. It starts with submitting yourself to something infinitely more powerful than you.
My husband and I have a policy to try to believe all the good we hear and only the bad we see, and it really stems from Paul's passage. (It's been a good guideline even if imperfectly practiced!) However, I kind of wish we still had different words for love as the ancients had. Whenever I read 1Cor 13: 4-8, I mentally substitute "love" with "charity." "Charity is patient, charity is kind..." I find it helpful personally to separate this practical kind of love from the smushy kind we just all kind of naturally think of these days. But this passage is also my own personal filter for who I take seriously online. I've chosen to unfollow some "professional Christians" (mostly from the old blogosphere) when it seemed to me there was just a little too much rejoicing in wrongs when they hurt people they disliked, or a lack of belief in the good will of their fellow Christians.
In my church we are assigned people to love (minister to) . How can that be? No sexual attraction? No emotional drama? No intellectual like-mindedness? No affection? All of the above. It’s close to the commandment which has no qualifications. So it becomes an action word, a choice, not a description of a fleeting feeling. If you study all of 13 Corinthians 1, it includes bearing, believing and hoping which do not limit the definition of love or charity but make it boundless, beyond human relationships. Jesus Christ is the best example for me. I am trying to install an operating system of charity. Lord help my unlove.
This series of essays is just so insightful, impactful and many other 'fuls.' Thank you for the reminder that love is indeed patient. And Kind....it seems to have gotten easier to say, "well, love must also be fierce, and protective, and...." Perhaps so--but patient. Kind. Yes.
This is clearly a deep complex intellectual subject, and all the manifestation of the greatest culture on earth bloomed from such constitutional creativity , but first things first YOU PLAYED TENNIS !
Brilliant.
Love is one of the most important aspects of the gospels, otherwise when Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, He wouldn’t have answered what He did. Such an answer must have realllly shocked the people at the time: “What do you mean love?? You mean to say there’s no easy 3-step-process to make it into Heaven??”
I still wonder, how does one love God with all his heart, might, mind, and strength? I think you’re right. It starts with submitting yourself to something infinitely more powerful than you.
Thank you for your wise words, your Klavanness
My husband and I have a policy to try to believe all the good we hear and only the bad we see, and it really stems from Paul's passage. (It's been a good guideline even if imperfectly practiced!) However, I kind of wish we still had different words for love as the ancients had. Whenever I read 1Cor 13: 4-8, I mentally substitute "love" with "charity." "Charity is patient, charity is kind..." I find it helpful personally to separate this practical kind of love from the smushy kind we just all kind of naturally think of these days. But this passage is also my own personal filter for who I take seriously online. I've chosen to unfollow some "professional Christians" (mostly from the old blogosphere) when it seemed to me there was just a little too much rejoicing in wrongs when they hurt people they disliked, or a lack of belief in the good will of their fellow Christians.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit I separate love from desire, but to me they are so obviously different.
Love is outside of time, a spiritual truth, a parental care, while desire is in the flesh, unstable and untrustworthy.
In my church we are assigned people to love (minister to) . How can that be? No sexual attraction? No emotional drama? No intellectual like-mindedness? No affection? All of the above. It’s close to the commandment which has no qualifications. So it becomes an action word, a choice, not a description of a fleeting feeling. If you study all of 13 Corinthians 1, it includes bearing, believing and hoping which do not limit the definition of love or charity but make it boundless, beyond human relationships. Jesus Christ is the best example for me. I am trying to install an operating system of charity. Lord help my unlove.
1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
We love those who love us.
This series of essays is just so insightful, impactful and many other 'fuls.' Thank you for the reminder that love is indeed patient. And Kind....it seems to have gotten easier to say, "well, love must also be fierce, and protective, and...." Perhaps so--but patient. Kind. Yes.
This is clearly a deep complex intellectual subject, and all the manifestation of the greatest culture on earth bloomed from such constitutional creativity , but first things first YOU PLAYED TENNIS !
And so it is that we have so many "sounding gongs and clanging cymbals" in today's world. (I Corinthians 13:1 KJV)
Nice turn of a phrase at the end.