'I may have to love you, but I don't have to like you!'
For the most part agreeing with him, this is my response to his assertion, that ‘love sets no limits.’
There are so many interpretations of love among people.
The one that seems to be behind your saying is the one that says… We must love people, that is, want what is best for them, have a good will toward them, but you don't necessarily have to want to be with them, or put up with them. This is where many a marriage ends up, and many a congregation. This is the love that can be commanded and, once we've hedged the commandment with escape clauses, we're free to follow the "commandment."
Though there are many kinds of love among us, the Word of God is the only teacher of what love is. How we apply it depends on how much we want to see.
For me, just to look, really look, at another human being, or even a fellow creature, without thinking, without measuring, analyzing, just looking, for me love comes to the surface quickly. I want to know the person I am looking at, and spontaneously I want to love them.
Freedom intervenes to set the limits.
Does the other person want to be loved, or is it an intrusion?
Do I want to activate the love which naturally rises in me, or will I let it die, look the other way, because I realise there will be a price to pay?
I hold myself "ready to love" others, because Jesus may come to me in the guise of my brother or sister. I do not fret over whether I should or must love my neighbor in an active way. I just love the one who is put before me this moment. If love requires action beyond that point, I try to do whatever love demands.The aftertaste of love is prayer, specifically intercession.
Mother Gavrilia says, "Love does not get tired."
I know what she means…
When I was loving the brother whom God placed before Brock and me a week ago last Saturday, it didn't matter to me that I had to stay with him the whole day, eating little, taking no rest, just making sure he was fed, that he would stay awake (we were all up many hours that day!), that he had somewhere to go while waiting for his bus connexion. I just wasn't tired. I could've stayed up all night with him, because I was loving him.
Love just doesn't get tired.
Have you ever noticed how John 3:16 (the often quoted scripture) and 1 John 3:16 really go together, and how the 3:16 in John's first letter is really a completion and commentary of the 3:16 in John's gospel?
2 comments:
God has made me aware lately how much legalism I practice: everytime I try to set a limit on my duties to others - wife, friends, family, strangers - I'll say 'I am not required to do that. I have no obligation to do that. I am justified not to do that. I have a right not to do that.'
I've been realizing how Law is appealing because it tells us when we've done enough, when we can stop caring about others and focus on ourselves. But I believe that we are no longer under the supervision of the law, since now we're under the supervision of Christ. And the limit Christ set, as Romanos cited in 1 John 3:16, is the laying down of one's life. That is when I have done enough, when I have given literally everything.
Thanks, again, Romanos for your commentary. I thank God for your wisdom and guidance.
"But I believe that we are no longer under the supervision of the law, since now we're under the supervision of Christ."
Amen, brother Kenny, Amen! An excellent way to put it! Thanks for the encouragement!
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