The Verb and the Motive

While obedience is the primary way we express our love to God, it is not the same as love. Love is essentially a motive; it is a verb. If I were married, I am to love my wife as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25). For every Christian, Christ Himself commands that we are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). In each instance, love is used as a verb; not a feeling. While Disney, Miramax, Chinese soap shows/movies and popular radio will tell us that love is a noun, something that we fall into… Scripture again paints us a completely different picture: love is something we do.

As a motive, love is that which prompts and guides other verbs and actions. For example, I love my enemies first by forgiving them of their harmful actions toward me, and then by seeking their welfare in appropriate ways. The verbs here are forgive and seek. Love always needs other verbs to give it hands and feet, for by itself it can do nothing. This is clearly seen in 1 Corinthian 13 where the noun love is used by Paul as the subject of a whole list of action statements.

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Betrayal.

Have you ever felt betrayed by a friend? You know, somebody whom you thought loved you and cared about you, whom you thought was on your side… Maybe you’ve been a disloyal friend like that to somebody else?

There is a saying that goes like… “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” But the fact of the matter is, it will only stab you in the back eventually, and you won’t even have seen it coming.

But for Jesus, He saw it coming, and in a sense, He didn’t get stabbed in the back like we often are. He is fully God, and yet He was fully human; He felt the pain of searing loss of a beloved brother who said he loved Him. I am not talking about Judas, but about Simon Peter. This famous story is as recorded in John 21:15-19.

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There is a lot of talk about love these days, especially in the romantic sense. We live in a culture that is saturated with movies (which are generally all about love and relationships) and music (also about love and relationships) which convey the sense that this is something that we feel, a dreamy fairytale-like state-of-mind where all of life is hunk-dory, and prince charming flies in to sweep us of our feet and save the day!

In Scripture, however, we find the Divine foundation for love and the Biblical definition of love. Like Christ says in Matthew 22:37-40, the great commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind; and the second is to love our neighbor as ourself. In one sense, Jesus Himself is affirming the Old Testament mosaic law, (Deut.6:5) to love God with all our heart, soul and might, confirming that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

As we read God’s words in Deuteronomy 6, we find that the primary message is obedience to God, and not “love” per se. Notice such words like commandments, statutes, and rules (NIV: commands, decrees, laws) are prominent, and how obedience to these commandments, statutes, and rules is emphasized.

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I can’t believe I found this on my portable hard-drive! Back in Toronto, I served 2 years as the Worship Coordinator for Ryerson University’s CCF (Chinese Christian Fellowship) for the school years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005.

May this be a blessing to you, as we think through how to live lives of worship — lifestyles that puts Christ at the highest place in our lives and gives the Father the greatest honor.

In holy and divine matters one must first hear rather than see,
first believe rather than understand,
first be grasped rather than grasp,
first be captured rather than capture,
first learn rather than teach,
first be a disciple rather than a teacher and master of his own.
We have an ear so that we may submit to others,
and eyes that we may take care of others.
Therefore, whoever in the church wants to become an eye and a leader and master of others,
let him become an ear and a disciple first.
This first.

-Martin Luther, First Lectures on the Psalms II, Works II.245-246.

I think that there’s a tendency in fellowship to build up the next generation of leaders, and in so doing, we neglect our first and foremost mission that is to make “disciples.” We puff ourselves up to be “leaders” as if we have something to teach and change others. If we do this long enough via trial-and-error, I’ve personally found myself to be a failure at leadership. People don’t listen for one, they don’t learn anything, and don’t even embrace the Spirit-sanctified truth that is in our words. I think what God requires of us is what Luther said so plainly–we need to become disciples ourselves first, before we even remotely consider our role in leading others.

On October 9th, 2006, I wrote…

It’s amazing how quickly things can change… but what’s equally amazing is how some things have never really changed at all. The truth is some things are probably never going to happen; and there things that are not going to change.

Nevertheless, we wonder… are there things in our world that can change??–things in our experience that can be altered? Are there things within the sovereign will of God that we have been given the ability to control? Are there aspects of our lives that we have been given the freedom to choose…that we must deal with personally so as to give glory to God and show the world that Christ is supreme?

Continue reading ‘Changing that which can be changed‘