June 21
Willing the Good of the Other
Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you. ––1 Corinthians 14:1-3, MSG
“To love is to will the good of the other.” ––Thomas Aquinas
Thirteenth century philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas categorized love as an active choice and an act of the will to desire the best for another person. In today’s language, we might say love is a verb first, and a noun second.
However, our culture defines love as something entirely different: A transaction between two people where you give as much as you get. On the surface, that sounds fair—a reciprocal arrangement that balances good actions and feelings on a sort of invisible relationship scale. If one person is giving more than the other, then the scale is out of balance and a correction is needed.
But all that matters is what the Bible says about love. Jesus puts it this way: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). And this: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34–35). And also this: “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back” (Luke 6:35).
Do you see much reciprocity in what Jesus is saying about love? Me neither. Radical, right? It indeed is. Basically, Jesus is saying that the law of “an eye for an eye” is gone—the old way of viewing others is gone. Getting back as much as you get? Gone. So what are we left with?
Love is a waterfall rather than a leveling scale.
The Father pours His love into us, we flow in His river, and the culmination is when we “let go” of it and His living waters tumble down and out of us to others. We love by out-serving. We love by out-caring. We love by out-giving. We love by going downward.
Impossible? Maybe—if you do it in your own power. This one is tough for us to wrap our minds around: We love expecting nothing in return. Why? Because that’s exactly what Jesus did for us, and as He says it Himself: “As I love you, so you must love one another.”
Sit in that thought. Stew in it. It’s red meat; pure protein. Not for the fainthearted. Are you ready to love the way Jesus loved you? Start with just one sacrificial act today, and build from there. There’s grace in the journey!
Father, the idea of loving my friends (and enemies) without expectation is really hard for me to fathom. In fact, without the supernatural leading of the Holy Spirit, I can’t do it. So Lord, do it through me. Love the world through me, just as Jesus loved me.