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Loving Man
Mar. 18th, 2010 07:16 amI was reading Barclay's Study Bible last night, in the section where he comments on Matthew 22:34-40, where Jesus Christ answers the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" Barclay points out that Christ replies with two basic commandments: "Love the Lord your God," and "Love your neighbor." And what made me stop to think was his explanation that the love of God must necessarily precede love of our neighbor, of our fellow man. He says that the love of God is what makes our fellow man lovable.
I'm not going to say, of course, that one cannot love others in any way if one does not love God. But I think that Barclay is quite correct, in that the kind of love that we as Christians are supposed to show to others--and supposed to feel for others--is not possible unless we are first firmly rooted in love of our God.
I think that I've mentioned here that there are a few students at school that it is hard for me not to like, because they remind me of my own sons. Sometimes, it's based on personality, but sometimes it's based only on how they look, or one mannerism that is somehow familiar. They aren't doing anything to make me like them more than anyone else, but I am predisposed to liking them; I want to like them.
In the same way, we Christians are called to recognize the stamp of God's love in every human face, and to pass the love that He has given us on to them. To jump off from a friend's recent thought, Christ said, "Suffer the children to come unto Me," and He didn't specify just the clean, nicely dressed, well-behaved children.
Which leads me nicely into my main thought here, which is that our love for our children--and how we hope they will live that out--is a good demonstration of the way this ought to be working for us. We love our children before they love us--before they're conscious of such abstracts as love. With time, they see our love for them in their lives. Hopefully, this includes loving them even when they are going astray, being whiny, or making poor choices. It's not a love that just says, "Sure, go ahead, I don't care what you do." It is a love that passionately desires what is best for that person, that grieves with them and rejoices with them. What we're hoping is that they'll not just succeed, but that they will take what they've learned from us and use it to love other people--to be kind, sincere, hopeful people who will help others and make the world a better place.
And I think that this is very Godly. God loved us before we loved Him, and it is His love in action that ought to be encouraging us to love one another, whether they are our brethren in Christ or just our next-door neighbor, or our supervisor, or...anyone. God loved us. His love for us when we are so far from worthy of that love ought to inspire us to see His love for all people, even those that we might not like that much. The knowledge of Him as Creator of all things ought to predispose us to love for our fellow man.
I'm not going to say, of course, that one cannot love others in any way if one does not love God. But I think that Barclay is quite correct, in that the kind of love that we as Christians are supposed to show to others--and supposed to feel for others--is not possible unless we are first firmly rooted in love of our God.
I think that I've mentioned here that there are a few students at school that it is hard for me not to like, because they remind me of my own sons. Sometimes, it's based on personality, but sometimes it's based only on how they look, or one mannerism that is somehow familiar. They aren't doing anything to make me like them more than anyone else, but I am predisposed to liking them; I want to like them.
In the same way, we Christians are called to recognize the stamp of God's love in every human face, and to pass the love that He has given us on to them. To jump off from a friend's recent thought, Christ said, "Suffer the children to come unto Me," and He didn't specify just the clean, nicely dressed, well-behaved children.
Which leads me nicely into my main thought here, which is that our love for our children--and how we hope they will live that out--is a good demonstration of the way this ought to be working for us. We love our children before they love us--before they're conscious of such abstracts as love. With time, they see our love for them in their lives. Hopefully, this includes loving them even when they are going astray, being whiny, or making poor choices. It's not a love that just says, "Sure, go ahead, I don't care what you do." It is a love that passionately desires what is best for that person, that grieves with them and rejoices with them. What we're hoping is that they'll not just succeed, but that they will take what they've learned from us and use it to love other people--to be kind, sincere, hopeful people who will help others and make the world a better place.
And I think that this is very Godly. God loved us before we loved Him, and it is His love in action that ought to be encouraging us to love one another, whether they are our brethren in Christ or just our next-door neighbor, or our supervisor, or...anyone. God loved us. His love for us when we are so far from worthy of that love ought to inspire us to see His love for all people, even those that we might not like that much. The knowledge of Him as Creator of all things ought to predispose us to love for our fellow man.
