Love is the gold standard of Christianity against which all things are measured.
Love, however, is more than an emotion. It is not merely a feeling. Love has two components that can be measured. To measure love, data from the answers to two questions are needed.
What is the scope of our love? and
What is the size of our payment? .
We approach perfection in love as the scope of our love broadens and the size of our love grows.
1) What is the scope of our love? In other words, whom do we love? Is the scope of our love narrow or broad? Whom do we include in and whom do we exclude from the scope of our love?
2) What is the size of our payment? Love is not free. It comes at a cost. Love requires the payment of a ransom in return for the giving of a blessing or the lifting of a burden. Are we willing to pay the cost of love? Furthermore, how much are we willing to pay? Is the amount we are willing to pay small or large? Are we generous or parsimonious with our payment?
There is a difference between selfish love and sacrificial love. Selfish love picks up the tab for ourselves. Sacrificial love picks up the tab for others. Sacrificial love is a willingness to pay out of our own pockets the costs for the production of benefits to or the removal of burdens from our neighbors.
Initially, both the scope of our love and the size of our love are stunted. We begin at absolute selfishness.
God, however, endowed reality with naturally occurring structures that encourage us to expand the scope and the size of our love. They are a hospitable environment where love can prosper. Naturally occurring love expanding structures are designed to be places where a reciprocity of love is experienced. In these structures, love is a two way street. Examples are family, friendship, marriage, team, club, tribe and Church. The relationship of a mother and her child is a naturally occurring love expanding structure. God’s enemies seek to eradicate the structures to deprive us of the joy of reciprocating love. By experiencing a reciprocity of love in these and other love expanding structures, we learn to perfect our love. Love begets love. The business of Christianity is seminal. Christianity plants the seeds of sacrificial love (Matthew 13:31-32) into the soil of the hearts (Luke 17:20-21) of the children of Adam and Eve. The seeds turn into trees so that, in the orchards of Christianity - the gardens of the new Eden -, many can enjoy the fruits of sacrificial love (Mark 4:20).
The good Samaritan is celebrated for radicalizing the scope of his love. He picked up the tab for a stranger in distress. Including a stranger within the scope of love was unprecedented. The expansion of the scope of love by the good Samaritan was a breakthrough in the science of love. When it was Jesus's turn to advance the science of love, Jesus pushed the envelope. Jesus raised the bar that marks the upper limit of love far higher than the Good Samaritan did (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus radicalized both the size of his love and the scope of his love.
With regard to the size of his love, Jesus laid down his life for us (John 10:15-18) (John 15:13). He made the payment not from his unlimited divine resources. He made the payment from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us (1 Corinthians 7:23-24). He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else (John 15:13). The exorbitant size of the payment is irrefutable evidence of the exorbitant size of his love for us.
With regard to the scope of his love, it was said that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13.) This, however, was merely the conventional wisdom. Jesus destroyed the conventional wisdom. He obliterated it. He turned conventional wisdom on its head. Jesus showed us a love that was more radical - more extreme - than laying down one's life for our friends. How so? Jesus radicalized the scope of his love. Jesus laid down his life not for his friends but for his enemies. Jesus picked up the tab for us, the very sinners who tortured and murdered him (Romans 5:8) (Matthew 7:6) (Luke 23:34). Because his most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us, Jesus was able to say "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Wow! How radical is such love! How extreme! Is no one, not even his enemies, excluded from the scope of his love?
In the toxic soil of the Crucifixion, we planted Jesus. And the glorious flower of the Resurrection bloomed. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. He arose from the dead still alive and still in love with us. That he emerged from the dead still alive is the indisputable proof of his power. Nobody emerges from the dead. He did. That he emerged from the dead still in love with us is the indisputable proof that our conception of divinity as power is incomplete. Divinity is also love - a mysteriously intransigent, inexplicably persistent and radically stubborn love (Isaiah 55:8-9) (Psalm 8:4-8).
Take stock of yourself. What is the scope and size of your love? How much are you willing to pay from your own pocket? For whom?
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Reality is reliable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us. His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their lives. Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever disappoint?
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Armageddon is here and now. We are not fighting for something in the hereafter. The battle is now. Now is the time to join Jesus in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the Valley of Tears facing off against Evil toe to toe, cheek to jowl. Christianity is not a sport for spectators. Christians partake in the fray.
In what language did God write the Love Note that he sent to us to answer our question, ‘Who are you, God?’.
Christianity is not monolithic. Different factions of Christianity emphasize different aspects of Christianity. Which aspect of Christianity is, in actuality, its most important aspect? To answer this question, we need to look at what aspect of Christianity Jesus himself put in the position of prominence in the showcase of Christianity. The showcase of Christianity is the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. We made a contribution to the showcase and so did Jesus. We put torture, suffering, killing and death into the showcase. Thankfully, he did not answer the evil that we did to him in kind. He did not give us a taste of our own medicine. His answer to the evil that we did to him was asymmetric - radically asymmetric. Into the position of prominence in the showcase of Christianity, Jesus put forgiveness. Forgiveness is the vehicle that Jesus used to convey to us the nature of God. To know forgiveness is to know God. Do you know your God? The wise anchor their understanding of God to the bombshell of revelation that exploded when Jesus and the evil that we did to him met in violent collision on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. To what do you anchor your understanding of God?
The Crucifixion is the exclamation point that the Word of God affixed to the sentence, 'God loves us'. GOD DOES NOT JUST LOVE US. GOD LOVES US EVEN THOUGH WE TORTURED AND KILLED HIM. Wow!
The seeds of evil do not germinate in the soil of love. Therefore, build a firewall between you and evil with blocks of love. Stop evil from propagating itself. Stop evil dead in its tracks.
God sent us a Love Note to dilute the toxicity of the Valley of Tears. Jesus was the first drop. Our job is to turn the drop into a flood. God wants us to become Love Notes like Jesus. He wants us to irrigate the Valley of Tears with love to turn it into the gardens of the new Eden here on earth. Our job is done here and now not hereafter and elsewhere. Our job is to pour the sweet syrup of love into the toxic brew held in the Valley of Tears.
Jesus entered the Valley of Tears to hold a conversation with us. “Who are you, God? Identify yourself. Friend or foe?” We shouted our question at him. He whispered his answer to us. The conversation took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The conversation was an interrogation. We gave Jesus the third degree.
God established communities of love in which we can take refuge from the evils of the Valley of Tears
Jesus gave a faceless God a face on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. On the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, Jesus showed us the face of forgiveness. Our God is the God who forgave us for the evil that we did to him. The brutality of the Crucifixion makes the intransigence of his love extraordinary.
The serpent is a dynamic but malign force who propels himself through human history repeatedly trying to extinguish God's love for us. The serpent tries time and time again to persuade God that God has made a mistake in loving us. History, therefore, consists of a series of failed attempts by the serpent to extinguish God’s love for us. Furthermore, God exploits these episodes to demonstrate to us the indestructibility of His love for us.
Words beget words. Only Love begets love. Catechesis with words is a poor substitute for catechesis with love.
From his heart, our hearts receive a transfusion of love. The transfusion of love is invigorating. It vivifies us. It brings the dead to life (Luke 15:32) (John 3:3).
The economy of paradise is based on the currency of love. With ordinary currency, the more we spend, the poorer we get. It is a paradox, but with the currency of love, the more we spend, the richer we get.
Jesus parachuted into the Valley of Tears to bring the war against evil to his enemies. He did not invade the Valley of Tears at the head of a powerful army (Revelation 12:7-12) armed to the teeth. He invaded the Valley of Tears alone, riding a Cross, with no weapon but love. He came to recruit an army of heroes from among the children of Adam and Eve to stand with him shoulder to shoulder, cheek to jowl, in the scrum at the line of scrimmage as comrade-in-arms fighting together in the war against evil as part of a glorious band of sisters and brothers. He invaded the Valley of Tears to bring us the technology that defeats evil (Luke 7:47). He demonstrated that the technology works by using it himself on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. He donned the jet pack and flew to show us that we, too, can fly. Love is the medicine that inoculates us against evil. Jesus took the medicine and exposed himself to the evil that we did to him to show us that the medicine works. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the medicine works. Inoculate yourself with it. Evil is a contagious disease. Don’t let evil infect you. The seeds of evil do not grow in the soil of love. Love is toxic to evil. Love smothers evil was water smothers fire.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Intimate contact with the truth is the means by which God is trying to save us. Illusions distort our perception of reality. Intimacy with the truth - both the sour truth and the sweet truth - shatters the illusions that distort our perception pf reality.
God wants us to pour the sweet syrup of love into the bitterness of the Valley of Tears. Our perception of the solution to our dire predicament in the Valley of Tears is different than God’s. We want him to remove the bitterness. He wants us to dilute it. There is a difference in opinions. His prevails.
Are we on the same page as God? Our perception of the problem is the same as God’s. The problem is the bitterness of the Valley of Tears. The sour truth plays rough. It bites. It chews us up and spits us out as bits and pieces. Furthermore, its tongue is as sharp as its teeth. Its tongue generates virulent anti-God propaganda. Our perception of the solution , however is different. We want God to address the bitterness of the Valley of Tears. God wants us to address it. He wants us to dilute it (John 17:15) as sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee.. God wants us to pour the sweet syrup of love into the bitterness of the Valley of Tears. There is a difference in opinions. His prevails
Love deifies us. Love raises us up from the level of the most miserable and hideous of loveless beast to the level of our loving God - from the basement of the kingdom of God to the penthouse.
His bloody wounds are the punctuation marks that our evil opened in his body. Before we knew what his answer would be to the evil that we did to him, his bloody wounds were question marks. After, they became exclamation points. There was a change in punctuation. The change in punctuation is the good knews of great joy - very good news for us.
Love is the gold standard of Christianity against which everything else is measured. Love is not a feeling. Both its scope and its size can be measured.
With regard to the size of his love, Jesus laid down his life for us (John 10:15-18) (John 15:13). He made the payment not from his unlimited divine resources. He made the payment from his limited human resources. He paid them all for us (1 Corinthians 7:23-24). He kept not a penny for himself. He has never paid more for anything else (John 15:13). The exorbitant size of the payment is irrefutable evidence of the exorbitant size of his love for us.
We cannot delegate the exploration of the mystery, majesty and magnificence of God to others. We must do it ourselves.Why? In the process of seeking God, God transforms us.