In the Final Analysis

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Jesus presents us with what seems to be a paradox, as so many of his commands so often do. We are to love humans with everything that we have. We are to place them above ourselves. We are to serve. This is expected of us as followers of Christ. And yet, we are not to focus on things of this world. We are to constantly be looking toward Eternity. Because, "in the final analysis, it is between you and God."

I find myself struggling with this: where are our earthly cares supposed to end and our heavenly cares begin? Should there be a distinction? What exactly does it mean to be in the world but not of it?

I don't really have any answers to this right now. In fact, I'm sort of at a loss. So I'll keep praying about it, and keep reading, and keep searching.

The Greatest of These

I never tire of reading Paul's words to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 13) on love. I realize that, within the Christian tradition, we recite them over and over.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away...Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In spite of what feels like the extreme overuse of this passage, it will always be one of my favorite scriptures. Until this past month, I never had the opportunity of reading them in a romantic sense before. When taken romantically, the passage is beautiful but difficult. Love makes us whole, and yet we cannot be whole without God. It is Christ's love for us and our love for Christ that gives us the ability to truly love another. And God charges us with a heavy responsibility in terms of giving earthly love, both romantic and not. First, we cannot hope to understand all that love is without allowing ourselves to be loved by our Savior and returning that love. Second, our earthly love must strive to be as pure as Christ's love for us. It must be patient and kind, even though humans, without Christ, are by nature impatient and unkind. God does not allow for jealousy or pride; in fact, true love cannot coexist with either of these. Love means being a servant to the one you love, always putting him or her above yourself - just as we must put God first. Love "rejoices with the truth," which means that it must be brutally, beautifully honest. Our love for God is honest, as he sees into our hearts. His love for us is honest, as he has revealed his heart to us. Earthly love must be just as open.

Perhaps, though, earthly, non-godly love can be all of these things on its own. Maybe. It might be possible. What Paul says next, however, is the limit of non-godly love: it "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." True love - and by "true love," I mean love that flows outward from the church because Christ first loved us - cannot fail. In no circumstances can it break, or wilt, or wither. It bears all. It bears all because, if it is true love, it is eternal, like us. Our salvation - Christ's gift of eternal life - makes us eternal beings. All godly things will last forever. If love is grounded in Christ, then it, too, will be never-ending.

And of all that will last eternally, Paul tells us, the greatest is love. God's love makes possible all things, from our very being to our eternal life. Yes, the greatest is love.

Then let us not use the word casually. Our language - our culture - has made it trite. We have allowed it to become so. Let us be cognizant of our use of this sacred word. It is the greatest of the eternal gifts God has granted us. We should treat it as nothing less.