I LOVE YOU…THERE I SAID IT – April 27
April 27, 2014“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“I love you!”, my friend professed as I turned to leave.
Oh, man…why did he go there?
“I have a profound appreciation for you, also,” was the perfunctory reply I dared not utter since “love” hung in the air.
I struggled for an appropriate response as milliseconds turned toward awkwardness.
Why could I not respond with, “I love you too”?
Why does professing our love from a brother in Christ seem so weird?
Why couldn’t we just hit each other on the shoulder and that be enough?
I mustered up a weak, “me too,” as I made for the door.
Few phrases cause me more social angst than a profession of brotherly love from a non-confidant. I might have been scarred by the Bud Light commercials from the mid-90’s (I Love You Man).
The problem arises from my cultural interpretation of the implied meaning of love. Love as defined by Dictionary.com:
- a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
- a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
- sexual passion or desire.
- a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
I know intellectually what the Bible teaches regarding love.
The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:31)
These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:17)
Love one another with brotherly affections. (Romans 12:9)
Owe no one anything, except to love each other… (Romans 13:8)
Let brotherly love continue. (Hebrews 13:1)
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart… (1 Peter 1:12)
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
Greet one another with the kiss of love… (1 Peter 5:14)
Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. (1 John 2:10)
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:11)
If anyone says, “I love God”, and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)
Our culture has skewed the meaning of love to such an extent that I struggle with the emotional aspect of love. I can intellectually know that I should tell my brother in Christ that I love him but a mental checklist suppresses my feelings:
Do I have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for this other person?
…Nope.
Do I feel a warm personal attachment or deep affection for this person?
…Not really.
Do I feel a sexual passion or desire for this person?
…Definitely not.
The inevitable conclusion is that I don’t feel the profound emotional response of love for this person as I have come to know what those feelings should entail. This conclusion makes any reciprocal profession of love seem less than genuine (Rom. 12:9). How can I love them…I barely know them? That makes it weird. Weirdness goes off the scale in trying to tell a sister in Christ that she is loved by me. And to just complicate it more, consider the implications of the command to love our enemies.
But I say to you who hear, Love our enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. (Luke 6:27)
If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? Fore even sinners do the same. (Luke 6:32)
If they truly are our enemy, than all the inherent meanings of love are turned upon their head. Our love must be genuine. It must flow from a heart that truly feels love. Therefore, we need to change our definition of love. C.S. Lewis has aided my personal definition transition. He defined love as:
Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.
~Answers to Questions on Christianity,” God in the Dock .
When we remove the societal demand for emotional affection from the definition of love, we begin to gain a better understanding of how to practically live in genuine love for those who are acquaintances, distant neighbors, or an enemy.
When I love someone, wishing for that person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained, my actions become those defined by love (1 Cor. 13:4-7).
Love is patient and kind
…because that leads to their ultimate good.
Love does not envy or boast
…because that will not lead to their ultimate good.
Love is not arrogant or rude
…because that will detract from their ultimate good.
Love does not insist on its own way
…because that is the way to their ultimate good.
Love is not irritable or resentful
…because that will detract from their ultimate good.
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing
…because that will not lead to their ultimate good.
Love rejoices with the truth
…because therein lies their ultimate good.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things for the ultimate good of those we love.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life.
(John 3:16)
God loved us while we were yet enemies because He desired our ultimate good and He accomplished it.
I genuinely want that for everyone. I genuinely wish that all would come to Christ. I genuinely wish that all my family, friends, acquaintances, and enemies would come to their ultimate good. I don’t want to do anything that would be a stumbling block to anyone’s salvation or sanctification.
Based on this more appropriate definition of love, I do love people even though I find it sort of weird to express it. However, expressing our love for one another is important.
Therefore, I want to express to all those who are reading this blog:
I LOVE YOU!
PRAYER: Father, thank you for first loving me. Thank you for desiring my ultimate good and working out everything to that end. Thank you for enabling me to love others – even my enemies. Help me to to desire their ultimate good. Lord, I lift up my enemies to you in love – give them their ultimate good, which is to know you. Father, make me a loving person in all ways and at all times. I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen
Just to clarify, I love you …in an unromantic, less than platonic, non-sexual, slug you in the shoulder sort of brotherly love …
that genuinely and earnestly wishes the ultimate good for you, that Jesus Christ, will flow in and through your life.
I know … it just seemed a little weird.
(I am working on it.)
A DEVOTED LIFE 
“I genuinely wish that all would come to Christ…and that all my family, friends, acquaintances, and enemies would come to their ultimate good. I don’t want to do anything that would be a stumbling block to anyone’s salvation or sanctification.”
THAT kind of love we can all embrace! Thank you, JD, for pinpointing the motivation behind Christian love. Such a succinct definition simplifies our choices of action.
I LOVE (yup, I said it) this post!!
We just talked about love at church! It’s hard when we say we love pizza, a sister, our spouse, or the Saviour all with the same term. Maybe we should just give up and use Greek 😉
You’re working on it, and I’m having the hardest time with that one word 😦 Good, good page.
Don’t slug me in the shoulder, me bones’ll break 😉 (Arthritis!)
This was a wonderful way to express love, particularly freeing in terms of how our social construct defines love. Thank you for the CS Lewis definition. I love you, JD. 😀
The Love of God compels us…not love for God…but His Love in us compelling us to lay down our lives in love…
we can say in all truth…I AM LOVE.
Touchy, feely, love comes hard for some people, maybe it is the way we grow up. My husband came from a NO touch family into a touchy feely huge family…now we have to warn people….when you meet him he will hug you…he took to HUGS like a duck to water. As a retired nurse, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that touch is one of the most important things people need it is as healing as medicine for most. I also look in my own life, and there are people who can tell me they love me with word and people who can tell me they love me with a hug and I will take that “touch” any old time. But I have to admit as I have gotten older, moved away from family that were hungers and small church families that hugged and have retired from nursing I miss my hugs. Now my best visits come from old friends and nurses that still know the POWER of a hug! Isn’t it too bad so many have forgotten it and even RUN from it. Sad!
Reblogged this on U.S. Constitutional Free Press.