Loving God, and Loving Your Neighbor

(whomever your neighbors are)

ver. : 02 May 2008

What Is Love ?

love : I'd be a fool if I tried to define love. I can point you to its source, and say "God is love". I can point you to Jesus on the cross, and say, "this is what love does". I can point you all around, for signs of God's love. I can point at you, and have you think about those you love, and those that have given you love. And I can point to Paul, in what he wrote about love in his letter to the Corinthians. All this should be enough; leave the rest for the dictionary folks. Now, go do it.

"If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every other Christian virtue. Thus, for example, justice without love is legalism; faith without love is ideology; hope without love is self-centeredness; forgiveness without love is self-abasement; fortitude without love is recklessness; generosity without love is extravagance; care without love is mere duty; fidelity without love is servitude. Every virtue is an expression of love. No virtue is really a virtue unless it is permeated, or informed, by love (1 Corinthians 13)."
---- Fr. Richard P. McBrien, *Catholicism*.

A site reader asks :

> Who is my brother? <

That's a lot like asking "who is my neighbor?". In Luke 10, Jesus turned that question around by telling us to be a neighbor to others (v. 37). Same with 'brother/sister'. The more important question with brethren is not how to define who is/is not my brother/sister (a conflict-creating idea that can too easily turn into passing judgement), but how we can be brothers and sisters to each other. For that is what He commanded of us. That doesn't mean our fellowship is without definition -- it means that those who are not brothers/sisters in Christ show themselves to be so by how unbrotherly they are, how they rip apart rather than build up, how they warp what love is, how they lie about Jesus. It is then that the foot must come down, and we say, 'this is not the action of a follower of Christ'.

> how can I get to love my enemies? Should I love this
> person, that belongs to the enemy?

God loved us 'while we were yet sinners'. That's not the slightest bit less true of me than it is my enemies and persecutors. I've tried, but I can't love that way. God has to teach me how, build that ability into me, by putting into me, through the Holy Spirit, the only love that can do it -- Jesus' love. Devotions and Bible study can help make the space for it in your life. But this love is still something you choose to work on with God, and choose to act on, so that this love can also be truly yours as well as God's.

Living A Loving Life

(as found on other Spirithome pages)

Mentioning all the Spirithome stuff about love and loving would be too hard a load for this page. But here's a cross-section of the main points :