4 posts tagged “love”

24: I love this. I can just imagine Peter giving John "the look" and the head nod.
26-30: John repeats the word "morsel" (of bread) here 4 times. It seems this is pointing to something about Judas. Judas had been with Jesus for 3 years and had had a taste of the Bread of Life. But "after receiving the morsel of bread, he went out. And it was night." (verse 30)
34: What is new is not the commandment to love, it is the commandment to love as he loved us.
35: Note he doesn't promise that all people will join in and turn to Christ but rather that love is (supposed) to be what Christians are known for.
37: It seems Peter thinks Jesus is going to withdraw for safety sake, to go underground for a while.

Is love what I am known for? Is love what Rock Berlin is known for? Do all people know that I am his disciple? Do I have love for others? Do I love others as Christ loved me?

It just depends on which condition...

On my way to work today, I was thinking on the lyrics that I quoted a couple posts back:

"Unveil Thy beauties to my sight, that I might love Thee more."

It struck me that my love towards God should be conditional and dependent on who He is and what He does. I was created to respond and react to the beauty and glory and justice and love of God, not to initiate or to love Him independently of who He is or what He does. The more I see of God's nature, the more I experience His working, the more I'll love Him.

I've heard it said that love in marriage shouldn't be a love "because of" strengths but a love "in spite of" weaknesses. You know what? I disagree. I wonder if love that best reflects God's love might actually be conditional after all...conditional and dependent on the image of God (imago dei) in the person I love. The more I learn to see and appreciate that unchanging image in my wife (which is there whether I see it or not), the fuller and deeper I will love her. I don't love her first and foremost in spite of her weaknesses, but rather I love her because I see the beauty of God in her, reflected in her true nature.

While thinking about all of this I was reminded of a post by Ariel last year on the logic of love (or lack thereof).

117:1 Praise the Lord, all you nations! Applaud him, all you foreigners!

117:2 For his loyal love towers over us, and the Lord’s faithfulness endures. Praise the Lord!

That's the whole Psalm, by the way: This is the shortest Psalm in the Bible. What strikes me here is how inclusive this Psalm is. The Psalmist is talking to the nations and the foreigners, telling them to praise the Lord. This alone is great and shows God's heart for the whole world.

But then the Psalmist takes it one step further and says "For his loyal love towers over us." Who's us? Well, he is including all nations and all foreigners in the loyal love of the God of Israel. Now this is very rare, almost every other time I see talk about "us" or "we" in the Psalms, it's talking about the people of Israel exclusively. This Psalm is quite unique in that it is inclusive, it's just "us" and "Him", not "us" and "them" and "Him" - there is no "them" when talking about the love and faithfulness of God.

Lord, I praise you for loving even my enemies as much as you love me. I thank you that your love towers over us and that your faithfulness toward us endures.

This blog is really just an unpolished set of thoughts I want to remember. But here's a link to a polished, concise mini-article on Ariel's blog "Bittersweet Blue" about the logic of romantic love with Christ involved:

Without Christ, all love is irrational—admirable but insane. Nevertheless, our leanings to love unreservedly and whole-heartedly reveal that we were meant to love, and that we were meant to love perfectly at that. The unlikely conclusion: We were intended to love perfect beings and be loved by them in return. Only Jesus gives this picture the tincture of reality.

Very, very awesome stuff: "No Logic of Love"