"The greatest thing you'll ever learn," we're told in the movie Moulin Rouge, "is just to love and be loved in return."
That sounds wonderful, but the reality is, we can barely comprehend love, let alone express it. That is why we often insult God with the cliche "God is love." We take a concept we barely understand, and in an attempt to endorse our understanding of it, baptize it with a misunderstood Bible verse. Often times, when we say "God is love," we are silently adding "And He doesn't care what I'm doing."
"But surely love is at the core of the Christian faith," we often protest. We don't need these divisive doctrines, when, as the Beatles put it, "All you need is love." Yet this claim is made as if love were somehow easy for us to perform. If the Christian faith truly boils down to loving God and other people (the Two Great Commandments), then I'm screwed. There is no way I could possibly do either of those things in a way that would be remotely acceptible to God.
Out of gratitude for his identity in Christ--an identity Paul shares with the Philippians--Paul overflows with love for his brothers and sisters in Christ. This is, for us, the next stage in our progression as well. As our identity in Chirst gives way to gratitude, our gratitude should lead us to overflowing love. Our BLUF today is this: As we prepare to walk this road of life with love, we must get love right. And here's a few reality checks to help us get it right:
First, our love falls short. As many reasons as Paul has to be thankful for the Philippians, he prays that their "love may abound more and more" (v9). This follows along with an axiom of the Christian faith: We are not done growing until glory. We will not have "arrived," until Christ arrives. And to reduce our faith to the simple concept of love is to place a burden on us that we cannot bear. Rather, we must strive to comprehend the barely comprehensible love of God, lavished upon us from all eternity and live in the light of that dawning comprehension. In other words, to love, we must reflect upon our identity in Christ and the love behind it. This will never make our love complete, but by His Word and Spirit, God will continually make to grow as He makes us more like Christ.
Second, our love is foolish. I imagine that you have all seen foolish love before. It is the obsessive love of one teenager for another, the kindly love for the poor expressed in money rather than sacrifice, the callous love for the suffering that tries to bind wounds with trite phrases. Paul prays that the Philippians love would be accompanied "with knowledge and all discernment" (v9). In the Greek here, knowledge is that of biblical truth, and discernment is that wisdom that applies biblical truth to a messy and complicated world. Love must be illuminated by the light of Scripture and applied in wise ways in an endless array of unique circumstances. The reality is that we often don't seek to walk in the light of God's Word, nor prayerfully analyze a given situation to consider how best to love. Thus, we rarely are able to "approve what is excellent" (v10). The beauty of God's love is that it was never divorced from His wisdom. All of human history bears testimony to this fact, as God's love, accompanied by His wisdom, was whispered in the Garden, spoken with greater and greater volume in the Old Testament promises, shouted upon the cross, and will be proclaimed with trumpets when Christ comes again.
Third, our love will be held to account. There will be a day when the purity of our love, in other words our motives, and the blamelessness of our love, in other words our relationships--will be exposed to the light of day. This is a terrifying thought when we consider how far short our love has come of the glory of God. We know that our love has never had entirely pure motives, and our every relationship has been tainted by selfishness. But, my friends, I have great news! As we approach that throne of judgment, eyes set upon the group and awash with tears, hearts filled to the brim with shame. God's Spirit will draw our eyes to the throne of judgment before us, where with unfathomable joy we will look upon our Justifier who perfectly loved in our place. The "day of Christ" (v10) will not be a gloomy one for us, but one of rejoicing. The waves of Christ's love will break upon our hearts once and for all, removing our shame and the lingering power of sin. And we will be reminded and secured by the truth that He not only lived the perfect life of love in our place, but that same love carried Him to the cross for our sin and to pour His love upon our hearts by His Holy Spirit.
Come back tomorrow for our remaining reality checks on love!
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