Advent: LOVE
Love. Such a small word filled with vastly large complexity. All too often love is simplified into an emotion, concept, or action. It’s turned into being about how one feels or about what one prefers. It carries the notion of whether or not you like something. I love pop tarts, I love the Minnesota Vikings, I love Starbucks, I love being warm in the winter, etc., etc.
But what if I were to tell you that part of the problem with our idea of love is that we have both over-simplified and made it too complex? What if I were to tell you that the mystery of love and the joy of it is in the fact that we may never be able to fully comprehend it? What if love goes beyond our emotion, yet reveals the power of feeling? What if love goes beyond convenience, yet also manifests the ease of choosing love? What if love calls us to come to a different foundation in order to understand it?
I think this year has been filled with many people pushing forth narratives of love that start on the wrong bearings. In fact, this has been a repetitive theme for centuries. “If you love me, you’ll do this…” “Love is love…” “We’re most alive when we’re in love…” In other words, the foundation set forth for love is based on your actions, your definitions, and your feelings.
However, and this is a big “however,” Love is not defined by us. It’s far too grandiose for our finite and limited vocabulary. Love can’t be boxed by our emotions, actions, or preferences. It’s way too perfect for our changing minds to try to bind it to what we think about it at the moment.
Yet, there seems to be a simple starting location for me. It doesn’t seem out of the question to define Love, look to Love, and receive and give Love according to the standard of One who was, is, and will always be perfect. It doesn’t appear to be inconsistent to recognize a foundation of Love that is not just explained by words, but proven by the Word. It makes perfect sense to me that love, as fully revealed in Christ Jesus of Nazareth, is the only viable ground to stand upon.
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 Jn. 4:10).”
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (1 Jn. 3:16).”
The word for Love in these passages listed above is a Koine Greek word that was very special. The writers could have chosen a number of words to describe love, but instead, they used a word that was not used elsewhere in their culture to describe the unique nature and character of God as Love and loving. They used the word ‘agape’ (Ἀγάπη) which takes on the noblest meaning of love in the Greek language and beyond. Agape is called out of one’s heart by the preciousness of the object loved. Agape is not kindled by merit or worth of its object, but rather it originates in its own God-given nature.
Kevin Weaver defines Agape Love as, “A God kind of Love that always contends for the highest possible good in every situation and keeps contending until it’s a present-tense reality.”
We know what love is because of God. We know what true Love—Agape Love—is because Jesus has demonstrated it to us. We see Love is God (1 Jn. 4:8), is an action (1 Jn. 4:11), is an emotion (God loved, Jn. 3:16), and in all these things, it goes beyond convenience, proves relationship, speaks truth, and calls into wholeness.
This Love not only shows us the reality of our sin but the greater reality of eternal life. This Love not only opens our hearts to the momentary truth of our feelings but the everlasting truth of the passion of Agape love. This Love breaks off chains and fills empty spaces. It calls up, sees the best, and makes impossible things possible. Agape gives us the ability to receive and give love in unique ways and calls us to contend for the highest possible good for those around us.
This year has continued to prove that the swirling definitions of love in our world and society can lead to small changes, but not everlasting ones. This year has also continued to reveal that Agape and the foundation of Jesus’ love demonstrated to us has, can, and will always lead to eternal impact that proves fruitful, effective, and necessary.
Simply put, when we reframe our minds and hearts to come back to the Source, we see that the complexity of Love invites us into a better definition. We recognize that Love is holy, just, gracious, perfect, complete, patient, kind, and never fails. We understand that Love goes beyond emotion although it involves emotion. It calls for both fierce action and intimate connection. It challenges to press past preference and convenience for the uncomfortable. It listens and speaks the truth.
If there’s anything that we can consider and implement in the midst of the many things happening this year, it’s the certainty we have in the fact that God—who is love, reveals love, gives us love, and calls us to love—is inviting us into a greater posture of receiving and giving His love.
Pandemics, elections, divisions, and the like cannot nor have they ever stopped Love and the call to love. We have a purpose. Your existence and my existence came about because of Love. We were made to be loved and to love. Not a love rooted in our definition or convenience, but an Agape Love that overcame sin, left the grave empty, and filled our hearts with the highest possible good. Now, we can live as vessels that are poured into by this Love and overflow to those around us in only the ways we can. There’s no one else like you and you were created for this exact moment.
In seasons such as Advent, we are reminded of this truth and we are called beyond materialism, boxes, ribbons, and the worship of traditions to the purity and foundation of Love. We remember that Love triumphs in the midst of the hardest times and that there is an ever-present invitation into this Love. Let me be one more reminder to you of the beautiful offer of Love to step outside of our definitions and into the one true foundation of Jesus.
Action: As we quickly close 2020 and step into 2021, I want to encourage you to think about Love as a vision for your next year. Spend some time with the Lord and ask Him two simple questions:
How do I best receive Your Love?
How do I best give Your Love?
Make it part of your vision for the end of this year and the year ahead to choose Love beyond convenience, preference, emotion, and false definition.
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them (1 Jn. 4:16).”
Beloved, Love has come and Love is coming again. Let’s build our lives upon Agape Love. I think we may find that all other ground is sinking sand. Amen.
