Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings while it’s still morning, dear people.

The morning has already been full—again. Yesterday became fuller than we expected. And the rest of today needs to continually be released of some of its fullness so that something doesn’t burst.

Speaking of fullness, wouldn’t it be nice if we could go to a nearby LOVE STATION and have our love tanks refilled before they run dry?!—kind of like refueling our vehicles. I mean, if we are supposed to be people who are always running around giving out love both to God and to others, it only makes sense that we need to have a reservoir of supply available and adequate to meet the demand. I suppose our best strategy for maintaining adequate levels is to contemplate God’s love toward us—considering the question, WHY DOES GOD LOVE ME? I’m afraid that too many make a presumptuous flawed response that works like springing a leak with the notion, BECAUSE I’M SO LOVABLE—or BECAUSE I DESERVE IT. We are wise to delete that idea from the desktop as soon as it pops up.

Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

This is a proverb that would be fitting to hang on the walls of every professing Christian home and Church fellowship. And of course, it would be better if it were made to hang on the inner walls of the hearts of all believers.

Because it is so easy for us to forget, let’s do a brief review of the concept of LOVE from a Biblical perspective. That impresses me as a very worthy exercise when I am reminded that LOVE is of supreme importance in the Kingdom of God. Jesus confirms that there is absolutely nothing of higher priority than for believers to first and foremost sincerely LOVE GOD (the vertical component), and secondly sincerely LOVE OTHERS (the horizontal component) (Matthew 22:37-40). Jesus goes on to state, “All the Law and the Prophets (the whole plan and purpose of God’s dealing with men) hang on these two commandments.” Paul affirms in 1 Corinthians 13 that any kind of external performance of Christianity apart from the internal motivation of love amounts to a worthless waste. That sounds like something pretty important to keep on the front edge of our minds.

Let’s also be reminded of the comparison and contrast between God’s love and man’s love. LOVE could be one of the most widely misunderstood words in the English language. Other languages, like New Testament Greek, communicate the meaning better by using at least 3 distinct words for different forms of LOVE. The highest form, and the word that most accurately describes God’s LOVE, is “agape.” I call it “commitment love.” It is a love that begins in the will and may involve the emotions. It is a LOVE standard that honestly says, “I desire God’s best for that person and will do what I reasonably can to help them achieve it.” It is a standard that empowers one to LOVE even unlikeable people. I confess that there are many people around me that I do not really like and I have little natural desire to be around. But that does not prevent me from LOVING them by God’s standard and still desiring and working toward God’s best for them. And by this standard, LOVE BULDS UP. Man’s common standard of LOVE, however, is one that begins in the emotions and may involve the will. It is highly dependent on personal satisfaction, attention, and tends to be reciprocal. It says, “If you like me, I like you. If you say something nice to me I say something nice to you. You slap me, I slap you.” It’s easy to see how this attitude provides a very shaky foundation for any relationship—marriages, families, churches, schools, businesses, etc. Based on this standard, a man may reason, for example, “My wife irritates me—and I just don’t have those delightful feelings for her anymore. I guess I no longer love her.” Separation or divorce then becomes the solution.

In this passage before us, God is instructing us via Paul that our fulfillment of His edifying LOVE standard requires large measures of God-seeking (A HEART AFTER GOD) and self-denial. Self-denial? Now there’s the real stumbling block for our inherent selfish nature. Think about it.