What does it mean to so love someone? It means, at least, to love someone with a peculiar comprehensive and fierce depth of quality, care, and action. Perhaps John Stott has explained this better than most. Commenting on the Lord's great commandments to love God without reserve and to love others like we love ourselves (Mt 22:34-40), he writes: "The love Jesus had in mind was neither sentimental nor selfish, but strong and sacrificial. What we call love is usually eros, the desire to obtain and possess, whereas God's love is agape, the desire to give and to enrich. To love is to sacrifice oneself in the service of others, and where there is neither sacrifice nor service there is no love. To love God is to become absorbed in his will and glory; to love others is to become engrossed in their welfare." Taken from Christian Basics by John Stott, page 73; Baker Books 1991.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
God So (?) Loved the World
What does it mean to so love someone? It means, at least, to love someone with a peculiar comprehensive and fierce depth of quality, care, and action. Perhaps John Stott has explained this better than most. Commenting on the Lord's great commandments to love God without reserve and to love others like we love ourselves (Mt 22:34-40), he writes: "The love Jesus had in mind was neither sentimental nor selfish, but strong and sacrificial. What we call love is usually eros, the desire to obtain and possess, whereas God's love is agape, the desire to give and to enrich. To love is to sacrifice oneself in the service of others, and where there is neither sacrifice nor service there is no love. To love God is to become absorbed in his will and glory; to love others is to become engrossed in their welfare." Taken from Christian Basics by John Stott, page 73; Baker Books 1991.
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