September 8th, 2024 - Just Love - Magnum Opus

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"Just Love"
"Magnum Opus"
"The Most Excellent Way"

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Just love vs just love

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Is love enough? 
Implied question: don't we also need rules?

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Jesus' rule
 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

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Law and love connected
  8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 

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Rules are simpler, but limited
10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

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Love is complex, complicated, requiring wisdom and assuming relationship.
And yet I will show you the most excellent way. 

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Defining love: greek words
 Xevia, philautia, storge, philos, eros, agape

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CS Lewis: The Four Loves
gift-love vs need love
agape translated charity

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God's agape: He is the source
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

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God's agape: He is the essence
 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

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God's agape: He is the example
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

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The cycle of life
  11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

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A lofty vision
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

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So what are we afraid of?
Lack of clarity: ins and outs, acceptable and unacceptable (who we have to love)

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So what are we afraid of?
We fear love itself. We fear the God that is love. We fear surrendering to the mystery.

Alice Posthumus