Love is a many splendored thing

SUNDAY 25th OCTOBER 

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 15-18. A Dictionary defines Holiness as “perfect in goodness and righteousness” and the attempt to define what this means when it is lived out is spelled out in different parts of the Bible including Leviticus. Verse 18 carries the most important meaning identified by Jesus because he quotes from it in our gospel reading today – Love your neighbour as yourself as the natural corollary to “Love your God”.

1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8. The watchwords that describe what Paul is saying here are courage and integrity. We need the courage of our convictions to “preach the gospel”, a very grand way of saying that we owe it to God to not be cowed or embarrassed when asked what we believe – to be strong . We can “preach the gospel” through our actions as well of course, which requires integrity of thought, word and deed.

Matthew 22: 34-46. The centre of the law – the greatest commandment – is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind (or strength). A Jewish teacher would expand this by saying that to Love God was to obey the law from the heart (i.e. The will), to risk one’s life (or soul) in defence of the faith and to put ones strength (property and resources) at the disposal of Israel. This way love is not an emotion but a programme of action. Thus, love can be commanded. And the second commandment is like it. Love is commanded towards one’s neighbour.   

 

"Love is a many splendored thing" as Nat King Cole sang all those years ago and defies adequate definition because it encompasses so many different things; such as a mother’s love, which is different from the love of a husband or wife which is different from me saying I love wine! The Greeks had five different words for different kinds of love, but in English we only have the one. Consider this statement from the gospel;

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and you shall love your neighbour as yourself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

To which a modern person brought up in our secularised western culture would have a right to ask.

“Hold on a minute – you can’t command someone to Love – love is an emotion which you have or don’t have for another person”.

They would feel justified in asking the question because in western culture the meaning of love has narrowed to mainly describe the emotion of romantic love, excluding every other meaning. Where it is used in a wider context to describe familial love that would still be seen as an emotion, purely an instinctual one that again, cannot be commanded.

Yet the Bible and more particularly Jesus himself who is the arbiter of Christian belief after all, insists that Love can be commanded.

Which must mean of course that Love is understood in the Bible rather differently to the way we normally understand it.

In the Bible, Love covers the full range of meanings but in the New Testament it is seen more as a “programme of action” than a simple emotion which is how Love can be commanded.

The command to Love one’s neighbour doesn’t mean having a warm fuzzy feeling towards Mr. Bloggs who has just insulted your wife/child/husband. You are justified in disliking him intensely (or disliking his actions more properly) but still commanded to Love him – which means acting justly towards him, helping him if he is in need, being patient and kind towards him, wanting the best for him, treating him as you yourself would wish to be treated – loving him AS yourself.

Love in this light is more an act of the will, than a simple emotion. Incidentally that doesn’t make it any easier, humanly speaking to love one’s enemy so we should ask for God’s help when our resources are exhausted. Consider this seminal verse from John’s gospel;

“God so loved the world that he gave his only son that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but may have eternal life”

Love here is given flesh in an act of sacrifice – an act of the will – and as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane “Yet not as I will but as you will”

None of this excludes romantic or filial love or seeks to replace one understanding with another. But the Christian understanding of love is an expanded vision of Love that always seeks to embrace a wider understanding that includes a total response of mind body and spirit.

Preaching the gospel – which is simply letting people know that they are loved by God - is an act of service, which is an act of the will.

Pray for the courage to be able to do so and pray also for the gentleness and wisdom to communicate that knowledge in a meaningful and straightforward way which will look different in different contexts and with different personalities.

And all the time remember that the reason we are commanded to love others is that God loved us first. We are simply sharing his love with people who don’t know that they are loved.

Amen