Part of music's power lies in its ability to infiltrate deep into our memories, and at a verbal trigger, to emerge - sometimes after years of dormancy - in full throated 'glory'. Like dear old Haddaway here.
Last night, a bunch of us were chatting about love. In particular, what God has to say about it.
Here are some thoughts:
1. Costly love
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4)
Love isn't affection. Love isn't enjoying someone's company. Love isn't a physical desire for another. They can certainly be by-products of a particular type of love. But given that here John is speaking to a community of believers, (and given sexually poly-amorous relationships weren't a go-er in God's eyes) I think maybe it's easier to inject some definition to this rather approximate word, "love".
(a) 'Eros (pronounced /ˈɪrɒs/ or /ˈɛrɒs/; ἔρως érōs), also called marital love, is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. The Modern Greek word "erotas" means "Intimate Love", however, eros does not have to be sexual in nature.'
(b) 'Philia (φιλία philía) means friendship in modern Greek. It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity.'
(c) 'Storge (στοργή storgē) means "affection" in ancient and modern Greek. It is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring. Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. It is also known to express mere acceptance or putting up with situations, as in "loving" the tyrant.'
(d) Agápe (αγάπη agápē) means "love" (brotherly love) in modern day Greek. In Ancient Greek, it often refers to a general affection or deeper sense of "true love" rather than the attraction suggested by "eros". Many have thought that this word represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love. Thomas Jay Oord has defined agape as "an intentional response to promote well-being when responding to that which has generated ill-being."
Agape is the kind of love to which John refers. And I think that when we examine the way that God shows us this love, it is at His own cost, and for our good (vv9, 10).
'In real love, you want the other person's good. In romantic love, you want the other person.' Margaret Anderson
2. Stoicism isn't love
Love isn't merely action. Action can be the out-working, or fruit, of love. But, if I am cold in my heart towards my brother, frustrated, condescending, and brimming with a sense of superiority, and simply repress that, and act kindly... doesn't that just make me a hypocrite?
Rather, I want my disposition to be mournful over my sin-riddled heart, and then to adopt a posture of spiritual bankruptcy, where I go to the foot of my Saviour, with nothing but my sin, and cry for help. Cry for His love to overwhelm my mixed motivations, for He is greater than my heart.
3. Love casts out fear
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
I think that this is not so much a passage about the noun, 'love', as it is about the status, 'in love'. That is, the same as you live 'in God', or have been made alive 'in Him'. I can't quite articulate the differentiation, but I'll try: if you have been gripped by the love of God, if you have been made alive through the blood of Jesus... then you need not fear judgment; no, you can have CONFIDENCE! If you have a living relationship with your Saviour, and His Spirit is daily making you more like Jesus, changing your desire, purifying your heart, cleansing your mind, then that is the fruit of GRACE, the fruit of LOVE - a sign that you HAVE been regenerated. And in that, you need not fear judgment, because Jesus has already borne yours: double jeopardy isn't a game God plays.
That said, I think there is much to be said for how being gripped by that love affects the way we love others.
It frees us love without fear, and without self-regard.
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