Love is vague. The Beatles famously chanted 'All we need is love', but what exactly is it? Some confusion comes from 'love's large semantic range. What kind of love are you talking about? What is love? (Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.) Christians love to talk about love. Now this is hardly surprising as we are told in 1 John 4 that God is love. Yet I have been increasingly noticing anyone who boils down an aspect of Christianity to 'love' is almost always skewed in their focus. Which is to say, they abuse the vagueness of love for their ends. This is not to say the things they engage in are not loving. Quite the opposite. But the love of social justice they are usually talking about is detached from the greatest definition of love found in Romans 5:8;
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
As we 'just love' apart from the greatest definition of it in Christ's death for sinners, we may save the planet from Greenhouse gases, we may make poverty history, we may abolish child labour, but we may love people just enough to send them well cared for to hell.
I will put my disclaimer in the comments:
ReplyDeleteChristians should do good. Regardless of if they get an opportunity to present the gospel. But the people I have in mind are those for whom Jesus came exclusively as an example of how to care for the disadvantaged. This is in contrast (not addition) to Christ coming into the world to save sinners.
I'm with you. I think preaching the gospel is the most loving actions - and other forms of love should come as we live out the gospel and to aid its proclamation. Love of the world's sort, for the sake of being loving, will be mostly fruitless.
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