What is love?
Nowadays, “love” is egoistic instead of altruistic. This once noble virtue has degenerated into a “vague diffusion of kindly feeling.” We have succeeded in trivializing “a more excellent way.”
As long as we subscribe to this trivial view of love, we will never fully understand divine love as personified by Jesus Christ. Traherne in Centuries of Meditation, II, 30, wrote the following on divine love: “Love can forbear, and Love can forgive … but Love can never be reconciled to an unlovely object … He can never therefore be reconciled to your sin, because sin itself is incapable of being altered; but He may be reconciled to your person, because that may be restored.” In John 15:13 we read, “Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Yet, while we were still enemies, Christ sweat blood, then died for us. Now THAT is love.
As long as we subscribe to this trivial view of love, we will never fully understand divine love as personified by Jesus Christ. Traherne in Centuries of Meditation, II, 30, wrote the following on divine love: “Love can forbear, and Love can forgive … but Love can never be reconciled to an unlovely object … He can never therefore be reconciled to your sin, because sin itself is incapable of being altered; but He may be reconciled to your person, because that may be restored.” In John 15:13 we read, “Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Yet, while we were still enemies, Christ sweat blood, then died for us. Now THAT is love.
