Holy Monday: Love

In the English language and in westernized culture it is safe to say that the word “love” has been thoroughly watered down. We “love” our families, sports, ice cream, and trips to the beach. Although the degree of our affection for different things may vary, we are constrained to using the same word for each one and, therefore, diminishing the word’s potency.

In I Corinthians 13:13 Paul reminds us that love is actually greater than “faith and hope.” The word is so rich and nuanced that Paul has to provide 15 descriptors for it in I Corinthians 13:4-7. The word “love” is robust and extravagant.

The Spirit desires to produce the fruit of love within us. We are commanded throughout Scripture to love God and to love our neighbors. The fact that we are commanded to do these things and the fact that love is a fruit of the Spirit confirms that true love is not part of our default settings. It does not come naturally to us. We are prone to love ourselves inordinately and to not show true love to God or to our neighbors.

The great blockage to producing true love in our lives is not hatred. All of us are susceptible to hating other people, but our greatest antagonist to love is indifference. Too often we sequester ourselves and hide from suffering. We don’t want to produce suffering in the lives of others, but we rarely step out to address it or alleviate it. History is rife with sad examples of Christians sheltered in comfort and indifferent to the suffering of others. How many men and women of faith chose to watch the world from the sidelines during the days of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and even the Holocaust? Where do we see suffering and pain in our communities today? Are we invested in love or removed by indifference?

In John 15:13 we see Jesus’ encouragement to “lay down our lives” for others. This is something He walked out in perfection when He died on the Cross for us. 

For the Spirit to produce true love within us we must invite Him to eradicate the kryptonite of indifference in our hearts. We must also courageously step forward to His invitation to joyously engage brokenness and lay down our lives for the hurting and battered lives around us. When we do this, the Spirit’s love is produced within us in a way that the watching world can see and savor.