A Bloodless Martyrdom

Some thoughts on love

As I have loved you, so you must love one another. —John 13:34

There are as many definitions of love as there are people on this planet. Some are consistent with the truth. Some are not. In an age that exalts self above all things, fictions and half-truths are to be expected. You and I are exposed to them everyday, and from a variety of sources. Many have lost faith in the word. It is good, therefore, to consider and reconsider what you believe about love. For the Christian, this definition is much narrower and more specific in detail in spite of differences within our own camp. The first and best image of love is Christ himself. He is the shape love is to take in us. Here are some thoughts to consider.

To love is Christ

To define Christ, to catalogue, or to sort out the elements that gave Jesus his Christness, is to get as close to a definition of love as we may get. In those elements we have all the proofs we need, all the conditions necessary to recognize love in a world of counterfeits and pretended images. First, a death is involved, a sacrifice of self. Add to that humility, kindness, faithfulness, transparency, dedication, resolve, empathy, and an obligation to truth, not to mention a touch of the divine, without which love is not possible. Love is a living agreement between these elements, including those which cannot be explained. Otherwise love is a mirage, a pleasant fiction.

Love is an absolute

“It [love] always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8) Always. Never. These are absolutes. Love is an absolute. It has a very refined backbone. That is why you hear adjectives like “unconditional” attached to it. Unconditional love is a state of completeness, for which there is no negotiation, no options. It is not a permissive or a comprising word. Both noun and adjective, this troublesome little modifier absolute is one of the most challenged words of our time. Standing counter to an age that has little use for it anymore, it is not a very attractive word, politically or culturally. Yet it refuses to go away.