Friday, February 22, 2013

Love is not a to do list


God is love.  His actions pour heart of who He is.  His character.  

That is what sets Christianity apart from the rest of the religions who understand that there is a powerful awesome god who creates and causes and even moves in the hearts of man.  He is to be honored and feared and glorified and we might beg favors, but he is not love.

For God so loved the world that He sent His son.  

Tevye, the man who stands with his feet planted and questions God in Fiddler on the Roof knows this.  And asks his wife a question, “Do you love me?”

Do I love you?
For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes
Cooked your meals, cleaned your house
Given you children, milked the cow
After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?

But do you love me?

Paul understands this.  

What if I could speak all languages of humans and of angels? If I did not love others, I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
What if I could prophesy and understand all secrets and all knowledge? And what if I had faith that moved mountains? I would be nothing, unless I loved others. What if I gave away all that I owned and let myself be burned alive?
I would gain nothing, unless I loved others.

Love is not earned.  We are not loved because we are kind or creative or beautiful or gentle, in spite of what society tells us.

Love is the character of the lover.

Flailing yellowish wax-covered eyes-squeezed-shut bloody-wrinkled creatures are thrust into our weak-with-weary-pain arms and we love.  

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 

Holy Spirit.  Create in me a new heart.  And renew a right spirit within me.  You.  

And the fruit of the Spirit is love.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.  

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