We desire it so much and yet have little desire for all the difficulties that accompany it.

We love to think about it and yet have very little patience in truly pursuing it as the motive and goal of our whole being.

We sing about it with joyful exuberance and yet can hardly stand the repeated refrains and haunting melodies that honestly represent it.

We pretend like it is an easy thing to do, but in reality, it is one of the most difficult (if not THE most difficult) discipline of our entire life.

In short, we love to receive it, but hate to give it.

And that is, quite simply, the duty and discipline of truly loving others.

Love is the virtue of virtues. Indeed, it rises above all other virtues, for it is the very goal and end of all virtues: We practice patience in order to be more loving; self-control in order to be more consistent in loving; self-denial in order to have more room in our heart to love others; and so on.

We are always indebted to love others. We never satisfy our quota in loving others. For this reason, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another" (Rom. 13:8). We are always indebted because love always and forever remains the goal and end of all our actions. In other words, we don't love and then act. Instead, we act in order to love. And every action is ultimately meant to lead to this end!

If we have all faith and all knowledge and yet do not have love, we have nothing. Nothing can substitute for love. There is no other end worthy of our pursuit -- no greater cause worthy of our every effort.

And (here's the rub!) this love cannot be pursued or practiced apart from the presence of other people! You've probably heard this saying before: "Love would be easy if not for other people." Certainly this is true. However, love would not exist if not for other people!

Love does not exist apart from the existence of other people. God is love because God is not ultimately "individual" but a "community" or persons -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Because God is triune or tri-personal, God IS love.

However, for us, it is this personal element that makes love difficult. It is easy to be in love with the idea of love, but difficult to truly love people. Ultimately love, in theory, detached from others, is empty of significance.

"Love is the supreme road to knowledge of the person, because it is an acceptance of the other person as a whole. It does not project onto the other person individual preferences, demands or desires, but accepts him as he is, in the fulness of his personal uniqueness." (Christos Yannaras)

Who do you love? How are you loving them? (Notice I didn't ask who you are "interested in", who you are dating, who you are attracted to, or who you like -- the difference between infatuation and love is the difference between hell and heaven.)

May I suggest one small way that you can fulfill your debt to love others?

Obviously, everyone cannot be our close friend. But, we can love everyone we meet in the totality of who they are (with all their quirks, irritations, and weaknesses), seeking their best, treating them with the dignity and honor they deserve as people made in the image of God. Moreover, if they are brothers or sisters in the Lord, we can treat them with the familial love of faith.

One of the best opportunities to practice this kind of love toward others is during our discussion times at Thursday Night Teknon. Keep this in mind as you seek to encourage one another through dialogue. You have a real ministry in seeking to build up others during our sessions together. And you can really love others -- not as you would like them to be, but as they really are! In doing this you will demonstrate the gracious love of Christ!

Can you imagine what our group would be like if the goal of love was forever the impetus of our thoughts, desires, and actions?

© Richard J. Vincent, July 21, 2002