Monday, 14 November 2005

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  More on God's Love

  Finally, the people in Xangaland have remembered that the most effective way to get me to write a quality post is to ask me a good question! One of my fans and friends, who signs herself "Petra the desperate" these days, wrote the following in response to my previous post:
  
  

  I have a question, full stop!!
  
  So alright... if people who believe in God and His love (like you and Carrie and me and all other men in our christian community) know what love is and know how to love...
  do those who don´t believe in God and His love... don´t know what love is?
  -According to what I said in my other comment, there are of course people who only THINK they are in love.. but they aren´t.
  ("So many people boast, so many are jalous, envy, so many are proud in their "love".
  So many are rude, so many are selfseeking, easily angered, so many argue so often.
  So many lie to each other, so many are unfaithful...and they think they are in love? No, this is not love." )
  

  
  

  BUT:
  
  1) I also see people who do NOT believe in God but ARE very happy in their family or relationships with their sweethearts and friends.
  2)And I see people who are really, really very nice to their surroundings. People who have courage to stand for their beliefs...moral courage.
  
  So,... I just don´t understand how:
  
  1) there can be people who love each other just like in Corinthians, without having faith and
  
  2) how some people who didn´t grew up with faith still have a sense for morality; -how they could develope a sense for morality... (only religion does form you moral,... right?) and how some people who don´t believe in God still sacrifice their life for the neighbour without seeing Jesus in every person. "Love your neighbour as yourself"- there are so many people who do it (or at least are trying devotionally)... but have no faith. - how can something like this happen?
  
  ... do you know what I mean? I don´t expect any answer... but it is just something that had been on my mind lately.
  Ehm... to give a better explanation...
  
  genevievelovesGod said :
  "If not for God I wouldn't be capable of true love for my friends and family and the kind that enables me to fogive time and time again." - and Carrie and me, we all do agree, right?
  
  But I know people who ARE capable for love for their friends (I am one of them) and family and the kind that enables them to forgive time and time again. - I don´t understand for who they are kind for if not for Jesus?
  
  I don´t really know how society in America does look like.. but here in Germany it is a really often accurance. Or just take France (now Carrie knows what I am talking about). French people are a bunch of very nice and refined people, also among eachother, you must admit. But as Carrie told me, they didn´t want to hear ANYTHING about God.
  
  So... .. I´m confusion in person. I think the best thing is to summarize my comment into one question now:
  Only religion is able to teach you in morality and neighbourly love- is that right? If not, why?
  
  (No answer needed, as I can understand if you don´t know what I am talking about or if it is only in Germany like this and so you have no answer on this strange development of German/European society...or in the other case, if that is a question that simply no one is really interested in)
  
  --Petra, the desperate
  

  
  Let's see if we can untangle all of this in the light of the Bible. 
  
  The first idea to bear in mind is that the Greek language (in which the New Testament was originally written) has four words which unfortunately all have to be translated by the one English word "love."  (I'm not sure what the situation is in German and French, but I gather it's similar.)  There is storge, which is affection, or love for family members; phileo, which describes friendship or brotherly love; eros, sexual or romantic love; and agape, which is God's love.  (C. S. Lewis has a book on these four words which, as it happens, is just about the only book by him that I have yet to read.)
  
  This is an important distinction because, once we realize that our word "love" really includes at least four different things, we can understand how a person might have "love" in one sense without having "love" in another sense.  In Greek you could say "He has phileo but he doesn't have agape," but in English we're stuck with "love" for both, which can get confusing.
  
  The "love" described in 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John 4, which I mentioned yesterday,  is of course agape, God's love.  Thus, John can write, "The one who does not love [agape] does not know God, for God is love [agape]."  This explains how people who do not believe in God can have happy relationships with their sweethearts and friends-- just because they may have phileo or storge does not necessarily mean they have agape.
  
  Ultimately, everything good comes from God (see James 1:17).  So in that sense, even the love that unbelievers have for one another is a gift that only comes from God, whether or not they acknowledge it.  But there's another kind of love, agape, which is the kind of love that God Himself has, and that we can only have if we know Him personally through His Son Jesus.
  
  Next comes the question of what this genuine agape, love that is really from God, looks like.  The best answer, naturally enough, comes from Jesus Himself:
  

  
  "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."  --Luke 6:32-36
  
  

  The word translated "love" in all occurrences here is agape.  Jesus is clearly saying that not even all agape love is God's kind of love.  It's easy  for someone to have selfless concern and do good to a person who's been good to them.  It's even comparatively easy to show selfless love to a stranger.  But what about showing love to your enemies?   Real love is not seen in loving people it's easy to love, but in loving people it's hard to love.  The whole point of God's love is that it is shown to people who don't deserve it, and in fact were enemies of God-- like us.  I guarantee you that you're not going to find anyone having this kind of love unless they know God personally through Jesus Christ.
  
  

  "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."-- Romans 5:7-8
  
  

  The question of morality is very similar.  Remember that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so all their descendents (i.e., us) know what it is to be evil and what it is to be good.  Paul explains this very thoroughly in the epistle to the Romans:
  
  

  For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.  --Romans 2:13-16
  
  

  But, as Paul points out repeatedly, knowing about morality isn't enough to save you-- even doing moral things isn't enough to save you.  As James puts it:
  

  
  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. -- James 2:10
  
  

  This one is even more clear: Anyone can do good and moral things, but if you're not absolutely perfect in them, you'd better not depend on your good works to save you!  (See Ephesians 2:8-9, and many similar passages.)
  
  The two ideas tie together like this:
  
  

  Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."  --Matthew 22:37-40
  
  

  All the moral commandments, according to Jesus, are summed up in love--agape--for God and for your neighbors, which presumably includes at least a few of your enemies.  We can only have this kind of love from God, and thus we can't keep the greatest commandment--to love-- unless we know God personally in Jesus Christ. 
  

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