To have clarity of mind and a good understanding of sound doctrine is a great thing, but a heart changed by God is essential. For that reason, we must allow liberty of thought while demanding a heart of love.
There is very little doctrine that is critical. Love is non-negotiable.
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2 If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. 4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head,5 Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, 6 Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 7 Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. 8 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. 9 We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. 10 But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. 11 When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. 12 We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! 13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
1 Corinthians 1:1-13, The Message
John Monday
How do we demand love?
ReplyDeleteThank you, this is a great question that has pushed me to deeper reflection.
DeleteAs a parent of a teen and a tween I am becoming ever more aware of my limitations in demanding anything. While we parents may have some limited ability to demand a grudging compliance with some physical behaviors; clean up your room, keep your elbows off the table, feed the dog, we really have no capacity to change the heart of another, even our own children.
Yet the keeping of rules is where we humans spend so much of our time. Our families, our governments, our schools, our employers, and our churches all have rules. How good you are as a child, a citizen, a student, an employee and a church member is almost always measured by how well you keep the rules.
This is exactly the the culture in which Jesus found himself. The religious elite of the day worked hard to keep the rules and to impose the rules on others. They believed that their righteousness before God was determined by their adherence to the rules and advanced by their diligent study, clear understanding, and good works.
Jesus turned this understanding on it’s head. He understood that we have a penchant for imposing rules yet a flawed ability to understand or create them. So when asked by a religious leader Which of the commandments was the most important? He responded:
‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Jesus repeatedly emphasized the spirit of love above the letter of the law.
When asked what does “demand” mean in the phrase “the demand of God,” Rabbi Frank Stern of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Ana, California responded:
"What is it that impels a mother to protect her child, or a father to guard his child against attack?"..."There is that sense that you don’t have any choices. You have this internal force that compels (demands) you to move in a certain direction ... most parents can understand the feeling they have of wanting to respond if they feel their children are somehow endangered. In a sense, this is the same kind of push, the internal push,"
The Bible makes clear that the human heart is prideful, self-centered, and deceitful. Such a heart is the natural condition of every human and is inclined towards seeking self-salvation. In so doing our natural selves take pride in rule keeping and even greater pride in rule imposing (read Matthew 23).
The “demand” to love is the internal push that results within the heart that is “Born of the Spirit.” When we are born of the spirit the old heart dies and a new creature comes to life. That new creature is the one created in us by Christ. When we feel then express the internal drive, the demand, to love we are giving expression to the new creature, the christian.
In the end we can not demand love and we will have only marginally better success demanding behaviors. What we can do is understand that the demand of God, which is the internal drive in a heart redeemed by God is love. The heart of God loves.