What is love?

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-10 (NKJV)

In our modern times, there are many efforts to create a "multicultural" community. Most of them are nominally secular, but there are many which are religious in nature as well. The secular efforts tend to revolve around the idea that because we're living in post-scarcity times, conflict is harmful and unnecessary for survival, and so we should all just learn to get along. The religious efforts tend to revolve around the idea that because the material world isn't what is most important, conflict is harmful and unnecessary for eternal survival, and so we should all just learn to get along.

Christians are not excluded from this, and while there is support for the idea that Christianity is "international" or "multi-national", Christianity creates a monoculture of its own, and a lot of folks genuinely don't understand that. To build this case, we need to start with a somewhat controversial passage where Jesus is speaking about those who would follow him.

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. - Matthew 10:34-39 (NKJV)

So, right off the bat, Jesus clearly states that following him is going to cause conflict with even those who we share the most. If family is beset against family because of Jesus Christ, what is going to happen to the larger community? Family can be viewed as the smallest unit of community, and if Jesus Christ is causing disruption at the foundational level, then everything else built upon that foundation will also be impacted.

God has always desired a direct relationship with his followers, even in the Old Testament.

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. - 1 Samuel 8:6-7 (NKJV)

It was not God's desire that hierarchies and systems of authority be put in place between him and his people, but their rebellious nature and "stiff necks" required a constant escalation of authoritarianism to keep them in line, up to and including being conquered by foreign enemies and having all their wealth pillaged. While God's people sought to make their own way, the promises of God were null and void, regardless of the permanence he offered through them, because his bargain with Israel was not unconditional.

Likewise, Jesus Christ explains, through various parables and analogies and whatnot, that what people naturally value in this life will not remain so. Many folks know the parable of the rich young ruler who would not give up his material possessions to follow Jesus Christ, but this theme was a common one among his teachings.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

If such things are true, it's not that the things we naturally value are bad or intrinsically wrong, but that they should not be our priority. The things we have by our own hands should not be what drives our choices and shapes our behavior.

And if we're actively implementing this in our lives, we're going to have conflicts because others may not have the same priority, even within our own families.

Recently, I had shared with my wife some materials on the nature of many popular holidays, even among Christians, and just how synthetic those traditions are. When the vast majority of holidays have no scriptural support for their practice, let alone evidence that the early church found such things worthy of celebration. A big example of this is Christmas.

Many folks are familiar with the "put Christ back in Christmas" meme, but the date for Christmas was set hundreds of years after his death by a pagan ruler of Rome. Scriptural evidence as to the timeframe for Jesus birth points to a different time of year than winter, because the traditions of the Hebrews would not have had them with their flocks out in the fields at night in the middle of winter. Even worse, people want to make the celebration of Christmas "acceptable" by treating it as a "redeemed tradition". Do folks not know of the history of the Talmud?

Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”

He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. - Mark 7:5-9 (NKJV)

If traditions, if family, if the values that a Christian has are at odds with those around them, what hope is there for unity?

That's where love comes back into play.

Love as comes from God overlooks disparities on those things and brings his family together because the priority is singular in Jesus Christ, not on various traditions, families, etc. There are byproducts to the pursuit of Jesus Christ, and that is love for one another, but we cannot get that result by trying to just love one another through brute force. Nor can we ignore that there will be unity through Jesus Christ that is impossible by any other means.

Love, genuine love, as talked about in the opening passage of scripture, is something that people simply cannot summon for anyone else of their own accord. We can't afford it. We're already owing a debt we cannot ever repay, and we think we could shoulder someone else's burdens? Such thoughts are arrogant and foolish!

Genuine love is something that we need God's support in order to manifest, and if we are truly seeking after Jesus Christ and are becoming more like him, then our priorities will look like his priorities, and our sacrifices will be done in love just like his sacrifices. But we aren't the one whose sacrifices matter to others. Our works "in Jesus' name", are not the Gospel.

What is the Gospel?

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. - Romans 10:9 (NKJV)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. - John 3:16-17 (NKJV)

And what is our greatest priority in this life? What did Jesus tell us specifically we should be doing?

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. - Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV)

Is our priority to "put Christ back in Christmas"? No.

Is our priority to feed and clothe the homeless? No.

Is our priority to make peace between warring peoples? No.

Is our priority to bring heaven to earth? No.

Is our priority to sustain communities and traditions? No.

Our priority is to tell all nations about Jesus Christ, the good news of salvation, and then walk with them through the process of sanctification, of being disciples, of drawing closer to Jesus Christ and behaving and thinking more like him each day.

That is how we love the world. That is how we love one another. That is how "the Church" will be a multi-national entity, because we don't lose our physical bodies and our history when we are saved, but it will be a monocultural entity as well, because regardless of where we start in our relationship with Jesus Christ, we're all converging on the same focal point. We're all heading to the same place, and as we draw closer to Jesus Christ we can also find that we are drawing closer to one another at the same time.

We manifest love by tapping into God's strength and by focusing on God's priorities, because what most people think of as "love" is a weak and unreliable feeling that leaves much to be desired. Love is the glue for relationships, but we don't know how to make it or use it, and so we must look to the one who loved us when we were anything but lovely to serve as the example and guide for how we are to then love others.

Focus on Jesus Christ, his teachings, and the rest will come in time. Do not fret when your path leads you away from friends, family, communities, because if you're drawing closer to Jesus Christ, you'll never truly be alone.

Daily Bible Study - Proverbs 10:12

Hatred stirs up strife,
But love covers all sins.

Proverbs 10:12 (NKJV).

Love is an idea that has a lot of connotations, being used in a wide range of contexts. It's associated with feelings, with circumstances, with preferences, with motivations, it shows up pretty much everywhere.

Here, love is used in a contrast with hate in how people behave, where love can overcome problems, and hatred will cause them. Seems easy, right?

The question then is "why doesn't everybody love everybody else?"

Simply, the reason is because it costs to love, and finite beings have limited resources.

Humans are affected by the consequences of sin, and there are problems that we do not have the capacity to just ignore. Because of this relationship, where we are not independent from sin, humans cannot really love one another unconditionally. It's simply beyond our capacity, by definition, because we are not omnipotent.

We can try, and learn to love more, but we'll never perfect it, which is why Solomon spends so much time trying to warn against the follies of sin. People who love us will seek means for reconciliation, even at a cost to themselves, but for everyone else our sin creates a debt that must be repaid by our efforts, not by guilt-tripping those we have sinned against to "just love us".

You see, modern philosophies seek to try and invert the dynamic of the debt of sin, in that when someone wrongs you, it's your job to "be the bigger person" and absorb the damage caused from sinful behavior, while those who have sinned against you get off with little more than a stern warning.

People did this with God and with other people, which is why the universal salvation heresies became so popular. All of the sudden, it wasn't about how badly we have sinned and fallen short, but about how much God loves us, and how God would absolve all the consequences of our sin because of that love.

The truth is that God's love does not exist in a vacuum, and in fixating on God's love, God's justice and wrath were ignored, to the eternal peril of many. Sin is a violation of what God desires for our existence, it's a rebellion against God's order of things, and when we sin we bear the responsibility for the damage we cause, to correct what we have done wrong.

Jesus Christ did not eliminate that cost, merely repaid the debt conditionally, where we still have to accept his sacrifice on our behalf, to place our faith in him and not on anything else. This is easier said than done, because just saying it, or thinking it, isn't doing it.

While our actions are not what saves us, they do reflect that we have been saved and by demonstrating that we have genuinely shifted our priorities to reflect understanding truth and not continuing to entertain hollow fictions of our own designs. Even so, when tapped into the love that God has for us, and that can then be shared with others, we are still limited on our capacity. We are still damaged by sin. We are still limited in our ability to resolve the consequences of sin, and so even on the "other side" of salvation, we are never able to love unconditionally the way that God does.

Look, for example, at the New Testament recommendations relating to behavior of "brothers" in the church living in unrepentant sin. We are not to maintain intimacy with them, we are not to try and "cover" their sin with our (or God's) love, but we are instead to protect the body from the consequences of such unabashed sinful behavior and no longer have fellowship with them.

If one commits murder, does "love" bring the person murdered back to life?

If one commits adultery, does "love" undo the adulterous affair?

If one is drunk, does "love" bring down blood-alcohol content?

Love then does not eliminate sin, but simply provides a reason, a justification, as to why grace or mercy could be shown at all.

Love is cited as powerful, and while true, we have to be honest about our own limitations and not be deceived by lofty rhetoric which leads us down a path of destruction. Humans are finite creatures, our love is always limited, even when we are reconciled to God, and so despite our best intentions we will find we have inspired only hatred and conflict when our "love" has run out and there is still a debt to pay for our sins.

People do not hate those who could not ever pay their debts, but they would especially hate one who claimed they would to then back out at the last minute due to foolishness.

Daily Bible Study: Proverbs 3:11-12

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor detest His correction;
For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

Proverbs 3:11-12 (NKJV).

Love in the modern world carries largely an emotional connotation. Love is a feeling, an experience, something that you can find or lose just as easily. Love always carries a sexual undertone as well, and there is no real platonic dimension to it.

This can be quickly seen in how sexual orientations which are contrary to biological norms are rationalized because "they love each other". The platonic dimension doesn't exist.

Even within families, siblings, people say "love" but they can quickly grow uncomfortable using the term because of how frequently it is used in the sexual sense and not platonic.

What we call "love" today was previously called "lust", and that is an emotional experience, connected to sexual arousal, but lacking any of the higher concepts and ideals that were attached to "love".

"I love my kids/siblings" gets connected to incest.
"I love my buddies" gets connected with closet homosexuality.
"I love my mom" gets Oedipal.

Instead people default to "I love my family" in order to try and detach individual association and instead connect to an ideal, in effort to allude to the platonic dimension.

And sure, in certain social circles these are understood in the platonic sense, but those social circles are not what is on advertisements, lauded in movies and television shows, or written about in novels. Those social circles are not the popular ones, the ones which hold a place in the current media narratives.

If you do not understand that "love", as defined in the Bible and subsequently by God, is entirely platonic, and is devoid of sexual connotation, then passages like this one will be hard to understand. If you grew up in a family where "love" held the platonic understanding of commitment, of concern for welfare, of sacrificial intent to the betterment of another, then you won't have this struggle, but it's necessary to understand the culture you're witnessing to when you seek to spread the Gospel.

You don't change what "love" is or try to find some new term, but you're probably going to have to explain what I've just explained to someone who does not grasp the platonic understanding and instead defaults to the sensual.

Now, when you understand the platonic definition of love, that makes the remainder of the verse much easier to understand, and this one isn't all that complicated either. When God loves, he cares about our future, what we're growing into, and in seeking to guide and shape what we are becoming, God offers correction, discipline, direction to us that may be different than what we were already pursuing.

This is difficult to do for humans because we're so wrapped up in our own desires and ideals on what we should be doing that God's correction often feels counter-productive. God puts limits on us, restricts our freedom, and seeks to prune growth that we've had in our life that we were trying to nurture.

Our problem is that God already knows what is best for us, and does not always explain why something is to be done in a certain manner, or how it will benefit us in the long run. While helpful, explanations do not change or improve the direction that God provides, it only softens our hearts and makes obedience easier. Sometimes that ease becomes a crutch, where lacking an explanation, we feel justified in defying God's correction in our life.

Solomon is instructing us to not resist the correction and guidance of God, similar to how he had already extolled the discipline of one's father and the law of one's mother. The parents who care for their child will be concerned for the child's future, and will be seeking to prepare them for leaving the home and bearing the burdens of life on their own.

The parent who is invested in the life of their child will see areas of growth that are not beneficial, like a cancer on their child's life, and will seek to eliminate that before it destroys their child.

"You can't wear..."
"You can't watch or listen to..."
"You can't hang out with..."
"You can't marry..."

All of these are the parent's attempts to guide the life of their child towards greater success, and God does that for us on everything, not just becoming an adult, but being a complete human.

For this reason, when God puts a restriction on us, changes our direction, corrects our thoughts or actions, we should be thankful, not resentful, that we are so loved that God would care for our futures and try to guide us instead of just abandoning us, leaving us to stumble and fall alone our own wicked paths, convinced in our ignorance that we know what's best for ourselves.