Monday, March 9, 2020

Love Is The Greatest


Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13:13

I told a friend I loved them the other day.  Yes, someone other than my wife.  Now to be clear, it was not the kind of love I have for my wife, and I made that clear to them.  For those of you not familiar with Greek history, it defines four common kinds of love.  There is Storge (affectionate), Phileo (friendship), Eros (romantic), and Agape (love for all).  C.S. Lewis described it almost like wedding cake. Storge is the frosting. Phileo is the punch that goes with the cake.  Eros is ‘the cake,’ and Agape is the offering of the cake to someone else.  The love I spoke of with this friend was Phileo, but before it got to that, I had to have Agape love or a love that is given freely devoid of fear of being hurt.  It made perfect sense as I read something else Lewis wrote that said:

To love at all is to be vulnerable; love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact…you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal…lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change.  It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.  The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.  – Four Loves
Some people say the word love is thrown around too freely.  I don’t buy into that.  I believe what they mean is that true love is not shown enough.  We don’t want to get hurt.  We do not want to feel the pain of it being broken.  Thus, as Lewis says so well, we lock it up where few can get in.  However, one of my most endearing philosophies of life has been that when your heart is broken, the pain you endure is the price for the love you have always wanted.  Having met my wife, nothing could be truer than that.

God’s love is the key that unlocks everything.  There is a reason love is the greatest of things.  Paul understood this even as he admitted to not know everything saying, “Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!” (1 Corinthians 13:9) Love is a mystery.  However, when I look at a picture of my wife and I when we got married, I feel love deep down.  As my wife loves me, I feel the love God has for me.  As I think of my parents love for me, I sense how God watched over me over the years nurturing and growing me.  I am so humbled God provided me with all of this as I know many may not have had what I had.  But no matter if your home was filled with love or had none at all, God gives you all of His love unconditionally, and when you give love, it eventually, and I mean, always comes back.

God’s love is an ever-giving free flowing gift.  However, like C.S. Lewis says you must be willing to open yourself up to it.  You see, it is like when Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” (Matthew 6:24) You will either be closed to love, which leads to no heart for God or others or take all that comes with love’s territory: pain, suffering, and ultimately glory.  Isn’t the latter the crucifixion in a nutshell?  Let us all take up the cross and share love with all we encounter so others will begin to believe the word ‘love’ isn’t thrown around enough.  Who can you show God’s love to today?  How can you be a shining example of the Agape love of God?  My prayer is we acknowledge Paul’s words in saying love is the greatest.  Amen

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