“The biblical definition of love for oneself is not experiencing affectionate feelings but active care. As the apostle Paul put it, ‘For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourished it and cherishes it’ (Eph. 5:29). We do not love ourselves merely in ‘spiritual ways’ but holistically. And we do not merely love ourselves in ‘material’ ways. Man does not, after all, live by bread alone (Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4).” — Russell Moore, Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel
I think of DC Talk’s “Luv is a Verb” upon reading Moore’s quote, which probably says something about my personality or age. True love isn’t fuzzy feelings or platitudes. It takes action and pursues the good of oneself and others. It feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, comforts the widow and orphan, and speaks the gospel.
Such love isn’t either a spiritual or material matter. It concerns both/and. True love spans the spiritual and the physical because Jesus came to restore all things—hearts, bodies, and societies.
Take Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10). (Cue renditions of “Zaccheus was a wee, little man; a wee, little man was he…”) Jesus changes Zaccheus life forever. When the crowd mutters about Jesus hanging out with a “sinner,” Zaccheus stops, turns to Jesus, and says, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much” (Luke 19:8).
Zaccheus metamorphoses from a traitorous tax collector into a man dedicated to justice and generosity. He doesn’t simply pay back the people he has defrauded; Zaccheus gives to them “four times as much.” In doing so, he exhibits active love. Zaccheus treats the victims and the poor as he himself would like to be treated.
His faith, then, isn’t some ethereal thing; it’s concrete and real. It takes what has happened in his heart and applies it to the world around him. His faith — his belief in and love for God — prompt him to reach across boundaries, to seek reconciliation with people he has wronged, and to restore the finances of those whom he has harmed.
That is love. It is, as DC Talk would say, a “verb.” It begins in the heart and works it way through the hands. It must do both to be genuine, Christ-like love, a love that is not experienced in “affectionate feelings but [in] active care.”
Image: ptwo (Creative Commons)
[…] or knowledge, of God is bound up in loving God and others. By loving others, people show the world who God is. By following God’s commandments to live holy, set apart lives, […]