Love, Power, and Evil: Playing It Out

Love...'does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;' (1 Corinthians 13:6 NASB)

Love is what makes anything, including myself, worth something; in a sense, it's what my Master values.  Not that I'm not valuable to Him enough to warrant the sacrifice of Jesus, we all are.  But what makes my Master take notice is not the use of 'gifts' but the attitude and lifestyle of His kind of love.

Love is one of those things so misunderstood by our culture that we can scarcely use the same word within groups of followers of Jesus.  What our culture means by love and what we mean by love have almost no points of connection.  I think that's partly because our culture can't even settle on some sort of definition.

When the logical problem of evil and suffering is addressed by atheists, they typically use the construction: God is Loving + God is Powerful yet Evil.  They claim that for evil to exist there would need to be either a weak God incapable of stopping evil, or an unloving God disinterested in stopping it.  The problem with both options comes down to the definition of love and power, and often evil.

Love stands defined better than I can in this venue.  A brief summary of power is perhaps best explained in terms of 'parenting'.  Just because a parent can kill their kid when they're bad, obviously showing bad/evil tendencies, and so on, they normally won't.  When that does happen, we call it 'evil'.  Most of the time, they have the power to do something but they restrain the exercising of that power because they choose to.  It's power to control power, which is much greater than simply having power in the first place.  And, ironically, it's what we expect of parents.

Evil on the other hand, at least in the Hebrew Scriptures, is subjective.  What's evil for one isn't necessarily evil for others.  It better correlates to the English word, bad.  When in war, a city is attacked and destroyed, it's evil for those in the city, but good for those attacking.  Of course, sometimes things can be seen as universally bad, where everyone agrees, that's bad.   Still though, that only means from our subjective view point, without knowledge of specifics, like how it got that way, what it would take to change it to good, and so on.  And then there is the bad mixed with good.  For instance some good things have bad consequences, and some bad things have good consequences. 

With these definitions, I believe just because evil exists it isn't necessarily tied to some defect in God.  He can easily fit the definition He provides of love, exercise power over power, and there be stuff I don't like in this world.  And, beyond that, there can be stuff He doesn't like in this world.  Being loving means that His aim isn't our 'happiness' but our absolute best.  If that absolute best is eternity in heaven, then His choices in restraining his power might not look loving to us.

I believe that the path of love described in this chapter heads directly to the throne of God.  I also believe that it is a path which returns back into the world.  The path to His throne also transmits love back into the world.  But the ultimate destination is heaven, not earth.  The ultimate good which triumphs over evil in this place is heaven.  Heaven overwhelmingly tips the balances into our favor.  And this is true regardless of the evil suffered in this world; and there is unimaginable evil suffered in this world. 

Without listing the vast examples of evil in this world, suffice it to say that love in the midst of them overcomes their consequences.  One of my favorite sayings is, 'Darkness isn't anything in and of itself, it's only the absence of light.'  The take away from that should be a fearless shining of the light of God in our lives.  The darkness in our world is only the absence of the light of God in it.  So shine. 

Now, people don't like bright lights when they've been in darkness, so it seems bad.  But the consequence is their ability to see all the stuff they've been missing because we can't see without light; and that's good.  So the patience of love and kindness of love overlook the comfort of people adapted to the dark, and shine light anyway.  It seems bad at first, but the eventual consequences are far greater than the dark-adapted good.

I have neighbors, and I'm supposed to 'shine' into their lives, even though, at first, they won't really like it.  I'm supposed to do it anyway, because if I don't they will be left in their darkness, comfortable as it may seem.  Without light, they won't know God, know His love for them, and will not have a relationship with Him.  And that's bad.  Ultimately, that's the greatest evil possible.

Investing in the Eternal

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.  When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.  But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:8-13 NASB)

So, I don't have anything before my Master without love.  I love because I worship my Master; it's a normally produced fruit of worship.  And now, what now?  Where's Paul going now?  I think, if I'm not mistaken, that Paul is heading to the 'end of the story'.  This is the 'motivation' for going through all this, and continuing on with it.

One of the things about life with God that is supposed to ultimately motivate us, but today, gets shoved to the back of our minds, is heaven.  One day, followers of Jesus will join Him in heaven.  One day.  It's only been 2,000 years, and I suspect people now are getting a little ashamed at holding on to this belief or using it to motivate.  But yes, one day, Jesus will return for us.

Here Paul points out that while love never has an end, the other stuff does.  Prophesy will be put to an end, tongues stilled, and knowledge will be put to an end (like prophesy).  Think about this.  Why will love continue, but the others won't?  Paul goes on to explain...

When the complete comes, the 'parts' will be put to an end.  In other words, in heaven, when we know fully even as we are fully known, there won't be a need for 'gifts of knowledge' or 'gifts of prophesy' because everyone in heaven will already know everything.  In that day, love will characterize our eternal lives, so love will continue on into eternity.  The other verses through 12 continue to support this view.

The last verse, 13, lists three that remain.  Prophesy, tongues, and knowledge are all gone.  Faith, hope, and love remain.  They don't pass away, but consider Hebrews 11 for a moment: "Faith is the assurance of what is hoped for..."  So, faith and hope are tied together, in that what we hope for is made firm by faith.  In Romans 8:24, we're told that no one hopes for what they see, and in hope we have been saved; the salvation is not completely seen, not yet.  But what's the connection to love?

I suspect that to have faith, we must first have hope.  Without hope, faith doesn't have anything to substantiate; and faith without hope is fake faith.  By grace we have been saved, through faith.  And this 'by-grace-through-faith' transaction is not from ourselves, but a gift of God.  The connection between hope, faith, and love traces through the actions of God on our behalf.  Once we see Him face-to-face, hope will be completed because we will see.  Faith will itself be substantiated by experience of the presence of God.  What will be left will be an eternal life of love.

What I see Paul doing here is finishing off any residual argument about continuing to focus on the wrong thing.  Love first because we will love longest.  The rest will all pass away.  For Paul, since he believed Jesus' return was right around the corner, the call was to live as if it all comes down to today, because for him, it could.  What about for me?

The reality is that I'm not given any assurance of another day.  No one is.  So, it does come down to today, every day.  But I have so many of these 'today's that it's hard to keep on going since I know that it didn't happen yesterday, so the 'odds' are it won't happen today; so I slack off. 

If I flip a coin 50 times, and come up with 'heads' 80% of the time, what are the odds that the 51st flip will be heads?  If you say 80%, you should take a statistics course.  It's 50%.  It's always 50%.  A hundred flips, and number 101 is still 50%.  The reason is that a coin only has two sides, and they are equally weighted (or nearly).  In such cases all the statistics do is record the actual history of what happened.  In cases of a coin they do not predict the outcome of the next flip.  But we don't think that way.  We live, think, and behave as if it's a predictor of the next flip.  And so it goes with life lived with God.  He says it's a static potential, but we live as it the prior 'statistics' predict today.

I will continue to love (or worship) only to the degree I recognize the static potential of my continuing in this world.  I asked in the last entry, "What would I do if I was convinced that God had my back?"  Well, here's another question, "What would I do if I was convinced that I would end the day in the physical presence of God?"  The answer to that question should rule my day as co-regent with the first question. 

So here's the point for me: I need to love like I'm going home every day.  Only love will remain.  My other gifts will be gone.  My faith and hope will stand fulfilled.  But the practice of love will continue throughout eternity with me.  Perhaps the eternal quality of love is the reason that love so characterizes my Master.  Or perhaps love is eternal because love so characterizes my Master.  Either way, an investment in love every day is an investment in the eternal.  I like the ROI for that one.

It's About...Focus

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NASB)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-24 NASB)

Here we are, buried in the very core of Paul's discussion of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, and right at the crux of his argument, in the very center of his structure is the description of love.  There are fifteen qualities that should define our relations with each other in our congregations, and more often than not, don't.  Don't get depressed, it seems they didn't define the early church either because look, Paul had to write to them to start acting this way.

One of the striking things about the list of fifteen qualities is how similar they are to the list of fruit of the Spirit.  In Galatians 5:22 and 23, we have a list of nine things that the Holy Spirit brings out in a believer; they are the 'fruit of His presence' in our lives.  So, I want to show this correlation, draw out some of word meaning, and wind up with a rather startling application for myself.

The first fruit of the Spirit is love.  So, the qualities in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 are all defining this first fruit.  The next fruit is joy, and love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices together with the truth.  The third fruit is peace, and love is not jealous, bears all things, endures all things, does not take into account a wrong suffered, and is not arrogant or bragging.  The fourth fruit is patience, which is the first quality of love.  The fifth fruit is kindness, which is the second quality of love.  The sixth fruit is goodness, and love does not seek it's own, act unbecomingly, hopes all things, believes all things, holds no grudges, and does not brag.  The seventh fruit is faithfulness, and love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, does not take into account wrongs suffered, and is not jealous.  The eighth fruit is gentleness, and love is kind, not arrogant, does not brag, does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, and bears and endures all things.  The ninth fruit is self-control, and love, well, does all those fifteen things it does all of which require self-control.

As I think about it, the fifteen qualities of love are impossible.  They fly in the face of proper boundaries, totally violate any concept of self-protection, create a complete wimp, a limp dishrag of a human.  How can such a one not be taken advantage of?  How can such a one not be run over by uncaring callous people who aren't evil as such, but just don't care?  Seriously, how is this possible?  Okay, some I get: patient, kind, not jealous, not bragging or arrogant, those make sense in any culture.  But not 'rude'?  So, I'm supposed to 'bow to the social mores of others' even when I disagree with them? And what about 'not seeking its own'? How can I have anything to give when I don't take care of myself?

I also get 'not provoked', that's a good one.  But not counting wrongs suffered means that someone will continue to take advantage of me over and over.  Not rejoicing in unrighteousness I get, along with rejoicing together with the truth.  But the next set of four are seriously a problem for me: bears (or covers) all things? believes all things; seriously, be intentionally stupid? hopes all things? endures all things?  How will anything change if I endure it?  How will anyone not just lie to me if I believe everything?  Should I 'cover' for someone doing wrong?  You see how this description is problematic for me?  These are universals that I don't think are wise to keep, not in this evil culture in which I live.

Reality check:  So, I'm saying that God wasn't all that bright when He inspired these things? That He actually didn't know what He was doing when He inspired Paul to write them in an equally corrupt culture to one of the most famous examples of that corruption?  Is that what I'm saying?  Or am I saying that those were for them then, not for me now?  What is it that can make believing all things a wise move?  What is it that makes not considering wrongs suffered right?  Why would not seeking my own be a good idea?  What balances the scales or tips them the other way in my weighing of these qualities?

Luke records Jesus saying, "Unless a man hate his mother, father, wife, daughter, brother, sister, and even his own life, he cannot (read, 'is not able to' or 'powerful enough to') be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)  This verse always troubled me.  I know the standard interpretation that He means 'hate' as a hyperbolic comparison to how much we love Him, but still, it's harsh.  But as I read these qualities of love, something begins to come into focus.

When I love my Master so thoroughly that all other things in my life fade to shades of gray, and only He has color, then whatever happens to me isn't really that important to me.  The secret to living out these qualities of love in my life is sociopathic devotion to Jesus.  When I don't care about anything else, then why not let every wrong go unnoticed?  Haven't I been forgiven by my Master as much?  Why not believe someone's lie about themselves or to gain and advantage over me?  What can I lose if all I have worth anything is Jesus?  What is there to protect if the one thing I care anything about is my relationship with Jesus?  That's the one thing I possess that doesn't need protection, at least not mine.  It sounds totally ridiculous, and it is sociopathic, but I think that this might be the secret of my life with God.

It's scary.  I suspect that when my wife reads the above paragraph she will not be enthused by the prospect that she will be a part of the 'gray' of the rest of the world.  Yet the irony is that such a focus in me will make me a better husband for her.  I will be free to love her, and my daughter, and those in my church, and those outside my church in my neighborhood, and so on.  I'm free to selflessly love people because I'm not concerned about myself, my protection, my time, my resources, my whatever.  I can love because I have nothing to lose; at least nothing of any value that compares to my Master.  This is why these qualities look so much like 'Fruit of the Spirit' because they are the fruit produced when the Spirit of God has all of my attention.

So, I asked this question way back in these blogs, a few years ago.  "What would you do if you were convinced that God had your back?"  In other words if you had nothing to fear, and you knew that God would protect you no matter what, what would you dare to do?  The answer is often selfish.  But what if it were completely unselfish?  What if the answer were, "I would love without limits"?  I'm becoming convinced that when I am totally confident that God has me covered, I will be living out the fifteen qualities of love fearlessly.  I won't have to think about it or work at it, I'll simply 'discover' it one day.

So, here's the 'path' to get there:  When I fail, and I will, the response I need to have is worship of my Master.  In other words, I need to 'fix my focus' not 'fix my behavior'.  The behavior is a product of my focus, not the end in and of itself.  Jesus is the End, in and of Himself.  So, when I worship Him the product of that behavior is the quality of love.  And the genuineness of my love is tied to the depth of devotion in my worship.  Sounds easy, but I believe that passage about 'hating ones own family' also mentions taking up a personal instrument of torture-to-death every day.  So, along the way in worship, I die.  And I do it anyway.  Any one want to join me?

Love or Nothing

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NASB)

I do a lot of stuff at my church.  Others do more, many do what I do better, but I still do a lot of stuff.   Probably, the response of my Master is like, 'Yay, but do you love others?'  He's probably not that impressed, and not because others do more and many do it better.  He's probably not impressed because One making stars doesn't look at the work of lessor beings and go, 'Impressive!'  It just doesn't happen that's all.

What my Master has done that He is most proud of is love His created people.  He showed this through Jesus paying the price for the sins of the entire world.  So, what impresses Him isn't what I can do for Him, but that I love because of Him.  When that happens, it means His human creatures are 'getting it'; they are learning the lesson of Jesus and truly following Him.  In a sense, it means all the suffering on the part of the Creator of the universe was worth it, it had an effect.

But that's not how I have measured my life before.  Before it was always by what I can do/have done for God.  I'm in this role, I've done that role, I believe that, teach this, said whatever, oh, and these people like me.  As it turns out, my Master doesn't really care about that. 

My wife took a trip to talk to her dad about Jesus and lay it out there.  His health is failing, and we're not sure how long she'd be able to still do that and have him have any understanding of it.  He was very receptive, and his wife said she had already "accepted God in her heart".  He didn't accept right there, but she knew he would be thinking about it.  As she told me about it afterwards, I thought, "God doesn't give a 'theology exam' before accepting people."  This word wasn't precisely perfect, that word was a little off, but the core idea was there.

I don't know for sure but I'm confident anyway, that my degree in Bible and ministry hasn't 'saved' anyone.  To my knowledge, no body has said, 'Wow, that guy really knows a lot about God, I want to live like he does.'  At least, no one has told me that's what it was that caused them to seek God.  Not that I've wasted 10 years of my life chasing a useless vocational degree.  I'm just saying that it's not the 'qualifier' or 'edge' in my relationship with Jesus. 

At the gates of Heaven, Jesus won't be checking 'pedigree' or certifications or other initials past my name as I enter His heaven.  The single question will be was my name written in the Lamb's Book of Life.  He won't ask me, He'll just look down his list of names.  Either I'm in there or I'm not.  I find it ironic that there will be this judgement of the works of people, but then all of it, and all those judged are thrown into the lake of fire with the devil and his minions (Revelation 20:11-15).  So it's never been what I do, but that I love, first Jesus, and because of what He's done for me, everyone else.

So, the lesson of these introductory verses is that nothing else accomplishes for me what love does.  It's the first lesson.  And I will see from tomorrow's entry that I suck at it.  Lovely.  I'm busy, but I'm wasting my time without love.  I'm active, but a hamster-on-a-wheel without love.  I'm whatever, but not before the throne of my Master, Who only wants to know that I love.  Hmmm...