Christian Theology and Love
Christian theology teachers that of all virtues, the greatest is love (1 Corinthians 13:13), and that love is the fulfillment of God's law on Earth (Romans 13:10). "We love, because He first loved us," the culminating verse in the fundamental I John passage reads (I John 4:19). The core of I John 4:7-19 is consummated in the Spirit of Truth, the Matthew Henry Bible Commentary purports, singling out love as the divine path to holy Christian love that not only unites together two individuals, but brings them together in the ethereal power of God. The entirety of the epistle correlates the believer and the Savior in the presence and action of love, building 'love' as the spiritual bridge of accessibility between the two entities. The Apostle begins his discussion of love within a discourse about the religious community. It is in crisis, he argues, and it is up to the true believers of the religious community to hold fast to their convictions and have the courage to actualize them in their daily lives. "For 1 John, it is not simply doctrinal correctness that spells true fellowship in the community, but ethical consistency." (Senior, 564.) With Christ brought to the earth as an intercession between the light and darkness, le
"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another." (4,12.) Referring to the reader as Beloved, John reminds his audience that they are the sinners whose lack of goodness did not stop God from loving them at any point; he never turned his back on them but still made them loved in spite of their lowliness in the crucifixion and rejection of God's will in action. Henry argues that this statement is inherently invincible; if God loved this much, the world should love each other in return for God's sake. Love, then, holds the hope for the divided community to be demonstrably holy in the future, attaining an earthly divinity in God's connection. To stay strong, John urges the 'remnant community' to 'test the spirits to see whether they belong to God,' (4, 1) by using love as their fulcrum. "What is that commandment? That they love each other." (Senior, 565.) John posits this commandment inside the necessary truth that God and human are distinctly separate. Because they do not have access to God, they must follow His teachings to make His spirit known on earth; verses 4-19 entreat the believer that love is the only way to truly connect the divine and the earthly. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God." (4, 7.) "The elevation of the epistle and its freedom from a commonplace moralism are seen in two facts: (a) rewards and punishments, as in the teachings of Jesus, are subordinate to higher sanctions; (b) the appeal to the will is subordinated to the appeal to spiritual vision or faith." (Rist, 278.) Rist augments the understanding of the sacrifice as the action of perfect love by relating it to the formation of the Christian nature of Reality. The love of God is something the "natural man does not receive," but in John's supposition of this state, natural reality "rests exclusively on Jesus' historical revelation of Reality." (Rist, 279.) For John, the nature of reality within which one can experience love is the only means of transmission for the spirit, word, and work of God to be known on earth. "Only within that revelation can o
Some common words found in the essay are:
Bible Commentary, Interpreter's Bible, III Rist, Beloved John, II Christ, Reality Rist, Henry IV, Christian God, Love God, Earth Romans, god love, love god, love love god, understanding god, rist 279, love love, senior 564, god human, god loved, nature reality, religious community, god love rist,
Approximate Word count = 1408
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
