Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday October 13, 2010

Dale Byers a gifted author and friend writes about encouraging a young pastor at a Bible Conference to continue in the quest of becoming "more like Christ." This is the subject of much preaching and hardly ever a dream that is part of a life quest. All who understand the Bible give the point that one of the primary objectives in the Christian experience is to be more Christlike in our daily living.

In Dale's conversation with the young pastor who had barely lived through a brutal church fight, the pastor said, "I loved those people. Why did they do that to me?" Dale replied:

"You can never be like the Lord until you have been wounded by people you love."

As we go through life we somehow develop the idea that "If I love people enough, they will respond to me in love." The truth is that if we love people as Christ loves them, they will most likely be building a cross and you can guess just who they plan on nailing to it.

The truth of this is understood at the subconscious level in that we instinctively are afraid of building and committing to lasting intense (storge) relationships, we pull back, discover reasons for rejecting, or engage in behavior guaranteeing rejection by the other. We know "there is a cross in here somewhere."

Tyler Chamberlain commenting on C.S. Lewis "Four Loves" divides love into its different forms using the four Greek words for love: "storge (affection), philia (friendship), eros (romantic love) and agape (charity). The first three loves are able to appear in humans naturally and of their own accord. Affection happens by itself whenever somebody or something becomes familiar to us; friendship takes place wherever two or more people share a common interest, and eros is often even more mysterious." More here: http://www.helium.com/items/231214-book-reviews-the-four-loves-by-cs-lewis Eros means more than simple sexual attraction, it includes and can be limited to "Love of the best and most beautiful."

Agape does not occur naturally and must be cultivated for it is the kind of love God has for the less than best and even for those absent of any visual or intrinsic beauty. To truly have Agape you must receive this kind from God, it is the kind of love Jesus questioned Peter about after Peter’s denial of Him. It is the kind that demands nothing in return. It is rare, rare indeed.

To deal with those who abuse you when you have these "loves" in order, Christ is the exemplar. Luke 23:34:

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them;

As Pastor Byers wrote; "You can never be like the Lord until you have been wounded by people you love." May I add, "And you forgive them."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit.

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