The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread; they never call on the Lord. But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous. You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! (Psalm 14:2-7)
But now apart from the law the righteousness of
God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus
Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and
Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, and all are justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:21-24)
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
(Matthew 22:37-39)
Finishing
this psalm after being sidetracked by the fools in verse 1. “All have turned
away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one”… “for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The Old Testament and the
New, in one accord. They are also in one accord as declared by Jesus in Matthew
22. “All the Law and the Prophets hang on” the commandments to love God and to
love our neighbors. Again, the Old and the New concur.
Some
folks claim that we all sin (and we do) and that our sins look different. That
seems to be a purely human perspective. One person’s lust (sexual or otherwise)
is toward a different kind of object from another’s. But both are failing to
love the Lord their God or their neighbor as commanded.
Of
course, definitions are required. What does it mean to love? For some, it means
feeling emotional or sexual attraction, or expressing that attraction. Some
describe it as desiring or providing happiness. One definition provided for the
term we’re translating love is “a sacrificial love that voluntarily suffers inconvenience,
discomfort, and even death for the benefit of another without expecting
anything in return.”[1]
But
what that quote fails to include is that the kind of love meant is a kind that
will voluntarily allow or even cause inconvenience, discomfort, and even death
to the beloved for the benefit of the beloved. While Hannah Hurnard believed some
unbiblical things, I have always found this quote about love compelling: “Love
is beautiful, but it is also terrible – terrible in its determination to allow nothing
blemished or unworthy to remain in the beloved.” (Hind’s Feet In High Places, p
179.)
Love
is willing to let the beloved be unhappy, even to deny the beloved happiness,
if that is what is in the best interest of the beloved. So the lover will suffer,
or the lover will choose to let (or cause) the beloved to suffer, if suffering
is what will be best for the beloved.
Part
of the problem is in that definition. As Dallas Willard has pointed out, for
many people, the definition of love is “desire.” For them, love is about
attraction, possession, use, or consumption.
As
I think about this, I find myself thinking, “Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit – it
seems as thought I don’t recognize love given to me. I don’t know how to love
You, others, or myself as I ought. Renew my mind. Teach me about love. Teach me
to love in the day to day way.”
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