Monday, February 1, 2010

A supplement to love, or "Love" Pt. 2

After posting my blog entry on love, I got feedback from plenty of people and watched some good Bible teaching on the subject and had some really good conversations with friends and family about it.  The teaching that I found to be the best supplement and addition to my post is Rob Bell's Nooma video "Flame."  It's an 11-minute video that is well worth your time.



I think he has it right.  This idea of "falling in love" is the world's distortion of "ahava," and this has to be built on "rya" if it is going to succeed, or if "ahava" shows up first, we know "rya" must very quickly be established (or lit if you are still working with the flame analogy).  If "ahava" is continually fueled and cultivated without fueling and cultivating "rya," you end up with the world's distortion - Satan's lie.

Ultimately, we desire to be like Christ and to love as Christ loved in all our relationships.  The love that is not addressed in this video is the love of one's enemy, to love when it is hard, when the object of your love is undeserving of it.  What then?  How do we love someone who is unlovable in our eyes?  We must remember the cross; we must remember Jesus Christ.
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8).
And,
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us" (1 John 4:7-12).

2 comments:

bleedingdaughter said...

i read through this and then garden state. thank you for being who you are.
its a little werid for me to look up to someone younger than me- its never happened before. not that i can think of. anyway.
i lovingly [and jabbingly] have called your posts papers because theres a part of my that has enjoyed who you are in delivery, but more than that- i have been almost disgusted. i know its strong. something about all the bible verses and "making everything about God" left me somewhere in bitter, throw up in my mouth, and whatever all at once. tonight, after alot of places ive been in my brain thee past 2 days, something is starting to fall into place. im jealous of where you are in your love for the Lord. you talk about some of these verses, and im finally seeing that you arent just spouting this stuff out cuz it makes good points for good evangelization or exhortation.
its like i just ran into a glass wall. like i said before, no one- wait. no guy ive ever know thats been my age or younger has consistently and unwittingly pulled back the curtain on me. on the places i sit in my walk with God, content in my lack of depth with Him .

i think thats where my texted question came from last night. im feeling pulls in different directions.theyre all good, and all would be blessed by God, if i chose them. maybe they will all happen in his time. it feels like theyre clashing right now.
and the one thing- bible club at my apt- that ive been given right now, feels the least desireable and the hardest. ha. guess im in the right place.
thanks for listening. dont feel like you have to answer my question. i think id just like to hear from people that are decided, how that feels.

Anonymous said...

i LOVE it
(pun intended)