Love. Absolutely.

 

I woke up this morning with that Jimi Hendrix quote on my mind again: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

Is there any part of that untrue? I believe it’s universally true—maybe even absolutely true; although, I have serious doubts about the human ability to understand truth absolutely.

In our human attempt to understand something we first have to define it, which is a way of controlling it—a way of limiting it within our ability to comprehend: so, like Pilate who asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) we ask, “What is love?

Twice in the First Epistle of John (in the New Testament; in the Bible) the phrase “God is love” appears:

  • 1 John 4:8 – "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
  • 1 John 4:16 – "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

So, If God is love, is love God? And in the original New Testament language, (koine Greek), which of the three words for love is used in this passage? (Spoiler alert: it’s αγαπη ~ agape: a self-giving concern for others over self.)

So, again, what is love in the first place? And how far do I have to take this love thing? Well, Jesus said, “Love your enemy” (Matthew 5:44; reinforced by Paul in Romans 12:14-21); he also said, “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39 & Mark 12:31), which is a quote from Leviticus 19:18. Yep, that same Leviticus.

Four times in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:35, 38, 43, 44) Jesus implies loving the stranger/alien/foreigner/immigrant: “I was a stranger [ξένος ~ xenos, the root of the English word, xenophobia] and you welcomed me.”

But see, here’s the thing: by now we’ve stripped the word; indeed, the entire quote, of its intent and power. We’ve reduced it to apply only as we choose to apply it, or we at least have questioned its universality, which I seriously doubt was the intent behind the quote. Nor is it intended in Scripture. I’m as close to absolute as I’m humanly capable that Jesus did not place limits on love. I’m also pretty sure the idea of limitless love is reinforced repeatedly throughout the Judeo/Christian Scriptures.

The love of God, expressed fully through Jesus of Nazareth, who passed it on to us as the standard for our lives and our relationships is universal and, although I can’t comprehend it absolutely; I trust that it is absolute. I trust that; not my understanding.

What absolutely floors me is that it is expressed so fluently by a hard rocking guitarist, but rarely by those representatives of Christianity who are most prominent and most vocal in the public eye.

That’s the way it looks through the Flawed Glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,

Jim

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