Digging Deeper - To Love Properly
It’s been pointed out that unfortunately far too many people are emotional addicts when it comes to searching for a church that excites them, where the music moves them, where they get a high from a thrilling song service or sermon. When they come down from such a high, instead of being motivated to live better, to serve more, they just delve into a downer period, anxious for their next high. And if they don’t get it like they want, they go searching for another church where they can find their fix.
Feelings have their place but are dangerous. If such worshipful ecstasy, if this feeling, becomes all that matters, the individual is in trouble, certainly not on the path of discipleship Jesus would want. Following the Lord doesn’t have to be a drab affair. There are certainly mountain top experiences, but we must be prepared for the valleys and sacrifices, the work that must be done.
In a previous Cross Point of this Digging Deeper theme, I talked about “Shema” and how hearing properly, how listening intently, means we act on what we have learned as we hear the word of the Lord. Shema was used in the context of loving God, so it might benefit us to look at the word love. The Hebrew for love is “Ahavah” and knowing more about it can be helpful, as well. Ahavah means more than what we typically think of for the word love. It is more than a feeling. It means to act lovingly toward someone, or to be loyal to someone, to do what honors them or benefits them.
So, is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength just an emotional thing? Certainly not. Obviously, such love goes beyond feelings. In the book Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, Tverberg says, “When the Israelites were commanded to love God as part of their covenant, we can read it as not so much about passionate feelings as about an utter commitment to loyalty toward God, the one they sought to obey.” So, a full-bodied definition of the word “love” also teaches us that loving other people, not just God, must include action, not just mental feelings.
When Jesus told us to love our enemies, how do we do that? Again, the problem may be that we think we should have positive feelings toward them, that we should like them somehow, when his meaning probably is more about our actions toward our enemy, not our affections. We help them, if we can. We tell them the truth about Jesus, wanting them to see him as Messiah, to accept him and follow him. Through our words and our actions, we demonstrate this, and in doing so we love our enemies.
We make a similar mistake when we talk about the heart. We tend to relate the heart to feelings, to our emotions, something that may not agree with our head as we think. But in Hebrew, the heart (lev or levav) does much more than describe emotions; it in fact refers to our mind and thoughts. In ancient times people often thought of the center of our inner self as the gut, or intestines, not the heart, but whatever body part is used, the idea is more about our soul, our inner self, beyond feelings. Paul said, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5), and this is love. This is the proper idea behind our heart.
Love is more than dating, more than romance, more than feelings. It’s not a short-term thing but doing what benefits the other in the long run. Proper love for spouse, for God, for our neighbor is the same.
Cross Point: “Hear (Shema), O Israel (O Christian), the Lord our God is one. You shall love (Ahavah) the Lord your God with all your heart (lev) and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:4, 5).
Feelings have their place but are dangerous. If such worshipful ecstasy, if this feeling, becomes all that matters, the individual is in trouble, certainly not on the path of discipleship Jesus would want. Following the Lord doesn’t have to be a drab affair. There are certainly mountain top experiences, but we must be prepared for the valleys and sacrifices, the work that must be done.
In a previous Cross Point of this Digging Deeper theme, I talked about “Shema” and how hearing properly, how listening intently, means we act on what we have learned as we hear the word of the Lord. Shema was used in the context of loving God, so it might benefit us to look at the word love. The Hebrew for love is “Ahavah” and knowing more about it can be helpful, as well. Ahavah means more than what we typically think of for the word love. It is more than a feeling. It means to act lovingly toward someone, or to be loyal to someone, to do what honors them or benefits them.
So, is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength just an emotional thing? Certainly not. Obviously, such love goes beyond feelings. In the book Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, Tverberg says, “When the Israelites were commanded to love God as part of their covenant, we can read it as not so much about passionate feelings as about an utter commitment to loyalty toward God, the one they sought to obey.” So, a full-bodied definition of the word “love” also teaches us that loving other people, not just God, must include action, not just mental feelings.
When Jesus told us to love our enemies, how do we do that? Again, the problem may be that we think we should have positive feelings toward them, that we should like them somehow, when his meaning probably is more about our actions toward our enemy, not our affections. We help them, if we can. We tell them the truth about Jesus, wanting them to see him as Messiah, to accept him and follow him. Through our words and our actions, we demonstrate this, and in doing so we love our enemies.
We make a similar mistake when we talk about the heart. We tend to relate the heart to feelings, to our emotions, something that may not agree with our head as we think. But in Hebrew, the heart (lev or levav) does much more than describe emotions; it in fact refers to our mind and thoughts. In ancient times people often thought of the center of our inner self as the gut, or intestines, not the heart, but whatever body part is used, the idea is more about our soul, our inner self, beyond feelings. Paul said, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5), and this is love. This is the proper idea behind our heart.
Love is more than dating, more than romance, more than feelings. It’s not a short-term thing but doing what benefits the other in the long run. Proper love for spouse, for God, for our neighbor is the same.
Cross Point: “Hear (Shema), O Israel (O Christian), the Lord our God is one. You shall love (Ahavah) the Lord your God with all your heart (lev) and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:4, 5).
Posted in Cross Points