Love

The third and most important xian virtue is love.

When speaking of the love of God, there is something about the term "love" that is well, corny. In the midst of a hurting world that looks at suffering and corruption with such serious denunciations, God’s love can sound like a pipe-dream of rainbows and lollipops. Where is God’s merciful intervention and concern? While love sounds nice, we need real answers, not a romantic fairy-tale.

Is the love of God a romantic love? I certainly wouldn't want to suggest it isn't romantic. Contrary to the often stoic portrayals of Jesus in the church's artwork throughout the centuries, I think we ought to be comfortable with a theology that asserts God as the ultimate romantic, and author of romance itself, romantic love being part of his very nature as God.

Though we do see illustrations of God's romantic love in scripture, romantic love is not the main emphasis, and a strictly Romantic view of God's love can be very meaningless to a lot of people.

Some verses of the bible have become "theme verses": verses that sum up well the overall message of the bible. As regards God's love, John 3:16 is one of those verses. Unfortunately because of the way it is worded, it can also be prone to misunderstanding. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." The part of this verse that is often misunderstood is the "so". I have often heard it interpreted that "for God so loved the world" is meant to be an expression of the grandeur of God's romantic feelings of love. Something like an infatuated, glassy-eyed "I love you sooooo much!"

I suspect that the popularity of this verse has contributed to abit of the uncritical use and presentation of the love of God.

In truth, the "so" of this verse is really speaking of manner, or kind. It would be more accurately (but less simply) translated as "For in this way, God so loved the world: that he gave his only begotten son."

Of course, this does not mean the romantic and emotional element of God's love is absent from the text, but the main thrust is the exemplary manner of God's love: the laying down of the life of God for the sake of a world in need of God.

I find this is a much more instructive and helpful summary of what is most important to know about the love of God: a willingness to lay down our lives for others. This is the love that God calls us to have in our hearts.

This is much more sober, practical, credible and winsome than the portrayal of this Christian virtue as a romantic fling with the Lord.

Given how frequently the Christian faith is subjectivized and privatized beyond recognition, it's important to remember the objective quality of God's love. God's love is identifiable and in some sense, measureable. So much so, it's almost unmistakeable, for it has definite qualities to it. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 cor 13:4-7) Why is this so important? Because in love there is a real, objective and practical tool to evaluate whether or not you are a good person.

The horrible temptation (I would even go so far as to label it demonic) is to delude ourselves with moral excuses. Many have an abundance of religious romance, church flings and a hodge-podge of cuddly cherub-like thoughts that never amount to any action. Not all have (or have been taught how) to cultivate genuine character.

While growing in the love of God doesn't fit into a tidy 5-step formula, the cultivation of the virtue of love must at least be wrestled free from foggy, unmeasureable notions of God's love as mere romance.