![]() ![]() Love looks like that time Jesus invited a despised tax collector to be his disciple. We must move beyond a conceptual definition of love to a “boots on the ground love looks like (fill in the blank)” definition. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. We must see an objective demonstration of this holy love of God. That’s why John points to a person. ![]() The problem with all these definitions is the way they keep us talking around the subject. We insert the word, “holy” in front of love to signify we are talking about love of another magnitude of order. ![]() I can grasp a definition like this but I still don’t know what it looks like. Sure, John could give a conceptual definition of agape something like the self-giving preferential treatment of another person at cost to yourself. John chose the Greek term, “agape” to capture what he meant by “love.” But still it begged the question. We need a completely different way to categorize and talk about “love” when it comes to the way John employs the term, as well as much of the rest of the New Testament. One minute we speak of how much we “love” that new restaurant across town, and the next of how much we “love” our spouse (and on Facebook of all places). Humans are capable of all sorts of “loving” expressions. Over and over and over John brings us back to the hard objectivity of love over and against love as a soft, subjective sentiment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. ![]() ![]()
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