Love is Our Aim
Teachers’ Notes
“And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecy, it will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.” (1 Cor. 12: 31-14:1)
Make love your aim is a powerful statement in English, but even more powerful in the original Greek. The word in Greek, is diokos, which means “pursue” so that many translations have, “follow the way of love.” But it’s an especially intense form of pursuit, much stronger than the “earnestly desire” that is used in the following phrase regarding spiritual gifts. “Diokos” is a word that is used frequently in a negative sense to mean “persecute” as in “hunt down.” In a sense you could say that this was one of Paul’s “life words” because he had experience of this word both as the hunter and as the hunted. He was a persecutor who was then persecuted. So he turns this word on love: “hunt down love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts.”
The immediate context has to do with the use of spiritual gifts. The Corinthians were into the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of tongues. Paul is eager for them to have an use spiritual gifts, including tongues; in fact he chides them that he probably speaks in tongues more than anyone else.
But he wants them to be guided in their use of tongues by love. He specially asks them to refrain from using this gift among those who don’t understand what’s going on. Because people who hear tongues and don’t understand what it is often feel excluded—an effect which is the opposite of grace and spiritual gifts are charismata: gracelets
So they are hungry for God, eager for gifts of the Spirit—all good. But Paul wants more: he wants them to be ruthlessly guided by love in their practice of these good gifts.
Beyond the question of spiritual gifts this is a much broader challenge for us in the spiritual life isn’t it? We can take things which are good, given by God, and use them without concern for their effect on others. We can hurt others with our good things, with our God things.
Remember, Paul is not saying “make love your aim” to people who are aiming for hate. He’s not speaking to criminals who are just doing what they can get away with. He’s speaking to people consciously making God their aim.
Paul’s greatest critics were spiritual people. They were people who loved God. Jesus had the same problem. His biggest critics were people who loved God. They were people who had, or thought they had, God’s truth, but the way they handled the truth was a real problem.
Have you ever done something, thinking it was the right thing to do, the righteous thing to do, the God-pleasing thing to do, only to discover that it had an impact that was completely unintended? You ended up hurting rather than helping?
Perhaps you saw a speck in your brother’s eye and took your tweezers to remove the speck, but your hand wasn’t steady, and you poked your brother’s eye with the tweezers!
This is a big danger in the spiritual life! Some of my deepest regrets have to do with this very trap. Thinking I was loving God, thinking I had a firm grip on the truth, then discovering I was hurting rather than helping.
Many years ago, when I was a young pastor in my twenties, I met with a couple who wanted to get married. One of them had been divorced so this marriage would have been a remarriage. The leaders of our church at the time had just completed an intensive study of the biblical teaching on divorce and remarriage and had come to the conclusion that, strictly speaking, the Bible isn’t crystal clear on the grounds for an allowed remarriage of someone divorced besides the death of a spouse.
I’ve since changed my view on this issue, but at the time that’s how I read the the text and I concluded that to “play it safe,”—that is, not be in any danger of violating the Scriptural teaching on divorce and remarriage—I couldn’t perform their wedding. So I didn’t condemn their plans to marry as wrong, but I withheld my blessing as a pastor. They were extremely gracious, respecting my conscience on the issue, but of course, began to attend another church where they were married.
So here they are now, many years later, attending the Ann Arbor Vineyard again, so we planned to meet for a chat. During prayer that morning before the meeting, I was moved by the Spirit, I believe, to apologize to them for the way I served them as a pastor so many years ago. I hadn’t been willing to do what a pastor must do, which is not simply to play it safe, but engage the messiness of life and applying the Bible’s teaching from the perspective of a fellow pilgrim.
The blessing of God was evidently on their marriage—that, anyone could see. I had been wrong in so many ways, and I needed to acknowledge that when I met with them. When I met with them, I did just that. They were obviously very moved by my confession and apology with tears in their eyes said, “Ken, did you know that today is our 25th Wedding Anniversary? [I hadn’t known that, of course.] You’ve given us a great gift.”
So this exhortation from Paul is essential and it’s meant especially for those who love God and are passionate for his truth: “Make love your aim.” Being right isn’t enough. Having truth isn’t enough. Make love your aim!
What kind of love does Paul have in mind? The love he’s just been describing: “Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends.”
Gentle love, not harsh love, which is a mark of the Messiah: “the bruised reed he will not break, the smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”
Several years ago, I decided to focus on a few historical figures as my heroes. I chose men, because I was in need, in particular of men heroes at the time. I chose Billy Graham, Pope John Paul II, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Lincoln. I’ve read at least two biographies of each of these men and plan to read more.
If you follow Billy Graham’s life you notice a trajectory. He started off brash, harsh in tone even when preaching against sin, but over time, he became more gentle, much more gentle. As happens to older saints, he became more certain about fewer things. You notice he hasn’t been much of a voice in the so called “culture war” rhetoric of recent decades. He’s become a real softie. Those of us who are younger than Billy Graham could stand to learn from our elder brother.
His insistence on love as guiding light of faith, a word laser-locked on those who love God, committed to God’s truth, is something Paul didn’t make up from scratch. His master, Jesus, taught him this.
“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 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.” (Mt. 22: 34-40)
This is Jesus’ version of “make love your aim.” Like Paul, he is also speaking to people who love God and want to be righteous, but are missing the mark of love.
He says, “The greatest commandment? Easy! Love God!” But then he quickly answers what wasn’t asked—what’s the second greatest commandment? And his answer elevates the second greatest to a higher level: “and the second is like it!” Like the greatest, that is. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love can be a big word, covering lots of ground. It can remain an abstraction. Paul, following Jesus, is making it more concrete: Love your neighbor—how?—as yourself.
He’s speaking to ancient people. When he refers to love of self he’s probably not not talking about self-esteem, per se. They hadn’t gotten around to that concern. It’s his assumption that humans love themselves—meaning, left to their own devices they will take care of their needs. If they are hungry they will eat. If they are cold they will warm themselves. If they are tired, they will sleep.
Love your neighbor like that—not just your kids. As you would love yourself! No wonder he links this to the first commandment about loving God, because without God, without some power higher than ourselves, how is it possible for us to love our neighbor like this!?
But Jesus goes even further and says, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.“ The Pharisees were guardians of “the Law and the Prophets.” (The “Law and the Prophets” meant to them what “the Bible” means to us.) The Sadducees, mentioned earlier didn’t accept the Prophets—just the Law of Moses. So he’s speaking personally and pointedly to the concern of the Pharisees, who knew, loved, and did their best to obey the Law and Prophets.
They were testing Jesus (as at other times they accused him being suspicious of his motives) because of their devotion to the Law and the Prophets. But they were getting the Law and the Prophets wrong weren’t they?
And Jesus wants them to get the Law and the Prophets right. What’s the key? Understanding that the Law and the Prophets hang, they depend on LOVE OF GOD AND LOVE OF NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.
Ever heard of missing the forest for the trees? The Law and the Prophets were the trees, but they were missing the forest: LOVE OF GOD AND NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.
In the Sermon on Mount Jesus drills even deeper into this. “Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt. 7: 12)
This sounds very similar to the text in Matthew 22, but it’s even more to the point of his concern. The Sermon on Mount is addressed to the new disciples of Jesus who were still influenced by the Pharisees. We miss this, but the disciples were very much under the influence of Pharisees. When the Pharisees complained about Jesus to the the dicsicples, it upset them: “Jesus, the Pharisees are upset! You need to be careful what you say!” Instead, Jesus urged them to ignore the teaching of the Pharisees (”beware the leaven of Pharisees“).
The Sermon on the Mount can be understood as Jesus trying to secure them as his disciples, rather than disciples of the Pharisees. It’s as though they were still on the Pharisees mailing list; they were still getting the Pharisees monthly newsletter and being influenced by their views. He warns them: “Your righteousness has to exceed that of Pharisees.”
This time, he doesn’t even mention first commandment, love of God; he only refers to love of neighbor–that’s the part he’s stressing–drilling even deeper into the kind of neighbor love he has in mind: love of neighbor as yourself, expressed in this simple and concrete way: “However you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
HOW MUCH MORE EMPHASIS COULD HE GIVE TO THIS!?
The law of Moses was what, 612 commands? That’s a lot of commands….to remember, to understand, to apply. Laws about all sorts of things, some intuitive, some not. Life comes at us faster than our capacity to remember which law applies to a given situation. What then?
That’s one problem, but there’s another: Life is so incredibly complex! There are more than 612 situations requiring guidance. So we either need 6,000 laws or we need to understand the HEART of the Law.
The Pharisees chose the former. They embellished the Law in Mishnah (oral tradition). Building a fence around Law, they called it. Just to be sure.
Jesus said that’s the wrong approach. So he challenged them, calling those things what they were: the traditions of men. Sacred cows, and he wasn’t afraid to get them mooing, either.
And now, for these disciples that he loves, and for the Pharisees as well who were always nearby, listening in–and I do believe that Jesus dearly, tenderly loved the Pharisees, they were his elders, and he had more in common with them than with any of the other elders of his day–he’s saying, let me break it down for you: “Therefore however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Do you see the increasingly intense focus at work here? We begin with with LOVE in the abstract. Who has any argument with that? But then we focus on love of neighbor, and not just any love but love of neighbor as yourself. Then, in case we’ve missed it he spells out what that means with an even sharper degree of focus: as you want to be treated yourself, so treat others. Empathy love in other words: the ability to place yourself in the shoes of another; to say to yourself as a kind of mental experiment, “How would I feel if I were the other person? How would I want to be treated if I were the other person?”
Why is all this energy going into this laser like focus?
Because truth is powerful stuff to be handling. Especially God-truth. It’s easy to justify yourself, to assume the best about your actions, because you’re so committed to truth. And miss the forest for the trees.
Is this not the great danger of religion? Religion justifies people doing terrible things because they’ve convinced themselves that they are right, hooked into ultimate truth, the servants of God! We see it, certainly in the religion of others. That’s easy. But do we see it in ourselves? Paul and Jesus are speaking to people who are part of OUR religious family–those seeking to worship the God we seek to worship.
Never underestimate the subtle deceits of the human heart. We can take truth and misuse it! We can easily do things in the name of love, without even coming close to meeting the actual demands of love!
So we have this warning in Paul, who is simply echoing Jesus: This ruthless insistence on love in the face of religious over-confidence, as an antidote. You truth-bearing people, watch out! If it’s truth you’re bearing, handle it with care! How? What kind of care?!
Make love your aim! Patient-kind-gentle love! Love of God and love of neighbor as yourself! However you want people to treat you, so treat them–everything, the quality of your discipleship hangs on this!
Now may I get more personal in addressing those of us who are most passionate about our God connection?
Let me confess to you, something that I’ve noticed in my own heart. I’ve noticed that when people start talking a lot about love in a religious framework, I sometimes put my guard up. Because it’s easy to bat the word “love” around. And because people who seem to be losing confidence in Jesus, and the Bible, and the power of God, often start talking more, not less, about love, as a kind of replacement for God.
Am I the only one?
And so, it’s easy for me to hear teaching like this—like I’ve presented today—thinking that it is something like “easy listening Christianity.” Watered down, easy to swallow faith. Milk, not meat.
That would be a big mistake. Just because this sounds simple or just because it’s quoted by people who are not disciples of Jesus, doesn’t mean it is not a crucial concern of discipleship. We dare not think of this as easy-listening Christianity! This is cost-you-your-life discipleship!
If we, as disciples, are to be judged by anything, we will be judged by this! This is the LAST THING we want to neglect!
The Cost of Discipleship: Empathy-LOVE! Every single day, we can practice this one. Every single day, this is where discipleship to Jesus hits the pavement of reality. This is the real-deal test. With our children. With our closest connections–husband, wife, family, friends.
If we think the message of love is easy listening Christianity, we are tone deaf! Love is the most demanding thing about Christianity!
Husbands, lets talk straight. We can go for days on end assuming that we are loving our wives, without so much as thinking, “How would I feel, if I were in her shoes, married to me?” That’s just our wives! Jesus even laid the rule of love on our treatment of enemies!
THAT’S WHY IT’S A CORE VALUE!
Jesus is our Center. That means he’s our Master, like he was Paul’s master. That means he is Lord and Caesar is not and we are not.
There’s only one center to a circle, isn’t there? Jesus is ours. We can’t center our lives around two centers. The ancients knew this by experience, because they didn’t have machine tooling or computer generated graphics to make truly circular circles. To make a circle in the ancient world you put a string on a stick the length of the radius, and then you put your stick in the ground, and traced out your circle. So the ancients knew by experience that every circle has a center–one and only one center. You have to place your stick in the ground somewhere and that somewhere becomes your circle’s center and Jesus is ours.
The gospel is our message. There are a lot messages flying around these days, being the information age and all.
The post-modern story says: “There are many stories, and no single story that holds all the other stories together.” This is the post-modern critique of the modern era which had a single story: progress. It was a much needed critique of the modern worldview, which was, if anything, arrogant. Post-modernity, in that sense, is a much needed corrective.
But in the post-modern view, stories are constantly shifting. Even the self is viewed as shifting phenomenon with no center, no continuity–every soul a constantly shift congress of persons. So when we say, the gospel is our message, we’re saying that we have a message, and in that sense we’re flying in the face of a post-modern sensibility.
But I think what we’re really saying is trust your brain. The human brain is designed to make meaning out of life by discerning a story line. And once we’ve broken down all the many story lines and said, aren’t they all beautiful? don’t they all have meaning? our brains don’t stop. Once we see all the stories, we look for the thread of meaning. Without permission, our brains just get to the task of saying what’s the story, though, that hold all the other stories together?
Saying to our story-seeking brains that there is no story holding all the stories together is like telling a thirsty man there is no water! Those who accept an answer like that give up and die off. It’s not a perspective with much of a future, in other words.
And the fact is, each of us, so far as we know, only have one life to live and we need to know what story makes sense of all the crazy plot lines in my story–the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly? That story is the gospel. The gospel is our message, and we don’t have any other message. That’s a nervy thing to say, for sure. But we’re saying it.
The Bible is our book. The Law and the Prophets. The final word that the Law & Prophets were leading up to, Jesus. Jesus in the gospels, and in the other writings that followed in his wake that were treasured by the Jesus movement because they recognized the voice of Jesus in these writings. They sorted and sifted through all the available writings and gathered together the ones that resonated with the same voice.
And these writings are a matter of the historical record. As ancient documents go, the are well known and well attested. We don’t need special glasses to read them. They bear the voice, or the echoes of the voice of a real figure in real history: the final word to which all subsequent words are commentary. That book. This book. It’s our book, why? Because it was his book. And we are his.
Ah! That’s the thing about LOVE isn’t it? Love is ultimately only wrapped in something that can be described by a personal pronoun, like “his.” When it comes to love, “it” doesn’t do. So words can bear witness to love. Laws and the writings of the prophets can elucidate love. But if what you want is love, and if what you need is love, then the only thing that will DO, is a someone not a something, and you better find SOMEBODY TO LOVE.
So the book that comes from the heart of Jesus and elucidates his message, leads us to LOVE as the aim that keeps us from abusing the power of truth, the audacity of a known God.
Because Jesus is our center, and love is what makes his heart beat.
The gospel is our message and it’s his beating heart that makes the news good.
So his book tells us we just can’t afford to miss this one.
And so, it’s a core value: Love is our Aim.