Fruit of the Spirit: Love
The virtue and idea of love is all around us, and most people would agree that love is a good thing. The challenge, however, is in defining what it is, where it comes from, and how we obtain it.This week we looked at the virtue of love as it is expressed in the book of 1 corinthians 13:3 - 7. In examining this passage, we will see three things; What love is not, how we motivate for it, and how we grow it.
1. What love is not
This passage tells us that how you get love is not by simply wanting it or working towards it. Paul makes the argument that great sacrificial acts of giving away all of your possession to the poor (a more liberal virtue of social service) or delivering your body to be burned (a more conservative virtue of religious adherence) can be done without love.
What Paul understood, along with many philosophers, is that it is quite possible to be incredibly sacrificial from selfish motivations that seek primarily our own enjoyment.
2. How do we motivate to love?
In most cases, our motivation towards loving acts is usually rooted in fear or pride. If we dwell on the negative consequences of our actions if we fail to be loving, is it not out of a desire for self-preservation we are loving? Also, if we dwell on the positive consequences of our actions if we succeed in being loving, is it not out of a desire for self-advancement that we are loving? How is it then are we to love if the underlying motivation of selfishness is the same one that has the potential to cause great acts of hatred?
3. How are we to grow love?
As Paul gives a description of what love is like, it is curious to note that he seems to give love personal qualities. It seems as if Paul is thinking of love not as an abstract quality, but as a personal force. For Paul, love was not something that was to grasped through effort, but a person that had to be met. Christianity claims that the way one has his/her inward motivation changed is through an encounter with the love of God in Jesus Christ as expressed in his sacrificial death on behalf of mankind.
Awareness of such love has the potential to create humility in understanding what it cost for God to enter into a relationship with you, yet a sense of security knowing that you are loved with a kind of love that can never fail. This has great potential for the kind of love that is truly selfless in motivation, because all of our inward cravings for love has been met in Jesus Christ.
1. What love is not
This passage tells us that how you get love is not by simply wanting it or working towards it. Paul makes the argument that great sacrificial acts of giving away all of your possession to the poor (a more liberal virtue of social service) or delivering your body to be burned (a more conservative virtue of religious adherence) can be done without love.
What Paul understood, along with many philosophers, is that it is quite possible to be incredibly sacrificial from selfish motivations that seek primarily our own enjoyment.
2. How do we motivate to love?
In most cases, our motivation towards loving acts is usually rooted in fear or pride. If we dwell on the negative consequences of our actions if we fail to be loving, is it not out of a desire for self-preservation we are loving? Also, if we dwell on the positive consequences of our actions if we succeed in being loving, is it not out of a desire for self-advancement that we are loving? How is it then are we to love if the underlying motivation of selfishness is the same one that has the potential to cause great acts of hatred?
3. How are we to grow love?
As Paul gives a description of what love is like, it is curious to note that he seems to give love personal qualities. It seems as if Paul is thinking of love not as an abstract quality, but as a personal force. For Paul, love was not something that was to grasped through effort, but a person that had to be met. Christianity claims that the way one has his/her inward motivation changed is through an encounter with the love of God in Jesus Christ as expressed in his sacrificial death on behalf of mankind.
Awareness of such love has the potential to create humility in understanding what it cost for God to enter into a relationship with you, yet a sense of security knowing that you are loved with a kind of love that can never fail. This has great potential for the kind of love that is truly selfless in motivation, because all of our inward cravings for love has been met in Jesus Christ.