If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Put another way, if I am the smartest human alive, and I have knowledge and intelligence to solve problems in ineffably elegant ways, but have not love, it is for naught. If I have all the wisdom of heaven and earth, and plumb the Mysteries of the Deep so that nothing is hidden from me, but do not love, it is utterly meaningless: it is completely devoid of real value, and so am I. It stands to reason, then, that love is the real goal, the end to which my actions should seek to take me. If there happens to be some wisdom or understanding gained along the way, that is fine, for then they are useful and good. Putting this together with the fact that God is love (1 John 4:8), it is obvious that if I am to have some kind of purpose here, I must make it my chief aim, my singular purpose, to set my heart, soul, and mind to seeking after the ever-flowing fountain of love. For indeed, I do desire to have purpose, as well as I desire to have wisdom, understanding, knowledge, honor, and integrity. To achieve any of these things I must first learn love. The rest falls under that umbrella.
No man, when setting out upon his adventure, exclaims loudly, “I aim only for MEDIOCRITY!” No one, when embarking on life, shouts, “I hope that I am mired in COMPLACENCY!” Yet of course that is exactly what happens, we become entangled in the complexities of life and lose vision, and then we die. A.W. Tozer writes that “Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.” Yet love is the one thing that overcomes all other Things, and actual love is only attained through the saving grace of Jesus Christ, whose perfect love does not merely save us from a vague “Hell” but provides us with purpose, meaning, and all other good things which we our souls so ardently need but which defy description.
What am I saying here? That love is the greatest purpose to which we can give ourselves, and that the implementation of that purpose is found in God, who first sought me and now I struggle to seek him.
October 30th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
s’True. The real question, then, is what is the appropriate manifestation of that love, indeed that search for love on a daily basis? Also, how to cope with a world that rejects that love on a daily basis without constant dissapointment.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:26 am
Implementation is the topic of the next musing. :P Because, you’re right. Having discovered this, we have to ask what to do with it.
October 31st, 2006 at 6:21 pm
ah, yes indeed. it is tough to remain loving when love is not returned. staying positive in a negative atmosphere, i’ve found, is one of the most difficult things to do. find something that inspires love in your own mind, and keep it close at all times; this is the “trick” i use.