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Published: 21 September 2019

The Sonnett by that title was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1850. It’s a beautiful but mushy love poem that has probably appeared on more than a few Valentine’s Day cards. The real answer to the question is sometimes, “I have no idea.” Let’s face it, loving people can be complicated. We can try to avoid loving people but that doesn’t fulfil the Great Commandment. We can just do what anybody wants us to do to keep them happy but that is not always the most loving thing to do. Dr. Victor Matthews taught that loving well means 1) We should treat all people with respect—as humans. 2) We should give them their rightful place in our lives and 3) We should do the right thing for them. Numbers 1 and 2 are not that difficult to discern even though they may be hard to do. However, number 3 can be really hard to figure out. I have often prayed Paul’s prayer from Philippians 1 for myself in this way, “And this is my prayer: that my love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that I may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ…” We need knowledge and depth of insight so we can discern what is best. Of course, developing a disposition of love, or, as we have said before, becoming a person of love, goes a long way in helping us answer how to love people well. The more we practice love, the better our discernment will be when loving well is confusing or very difficult. Paul was teaching the Corinthians how to apply the New Commandment of Christ to their gnarly problems. We’ll learn more about that on Sunday. “Let us love one another.”

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Published: 30 August 2019

Americans make a big deal about “rights.”  We have many liberties in this country and it seems like we always want more.  Especially when a law seems to infringe upon something that I like or deem necessary to happiness.  Of course, there is an appropriate application of this idea and we should thank the Lord regularly for the many rights we have in this country.  While some people in the world hate us, we are the envy of many others for the opportunities before us.  However, there are times when what we have a right to do or be should be restrained.  There is a higher principle than what “I have a right” to do.  Some would say that principle is “duty.”  For example, I may have a right to go fishing every morning but I have a “duty” to perform as a husband and as an employee.  Simply living by duty can get frustrating because there is still something higher.  Some would say that “expediency” is the higher value.  In other words, what is best for me.  I have a right to drink as much Mountain Dew as I want to but the consequences will likely prove dire.  Lawful things are not always helpful.  The higher principle is not duty or expediency but love.  It is love that may require setting aside my rights.  This is a significant theme in the first letter to the Corinthian church.  While Paul dealt with many subjects it seems to me that the underlying theme is “Love one another.”  As we mentioned last week, we will not seek to know our neighbor if we do not love our neighbor, and we will not love our neighbor if we are not developing a disposition of love.  The same is true with “my rights.”  If the higher principle is not deeply embedded in our character as a reality, we will have a hard time deferring to others “in a pinch.”  We’ll look at this Sunday in the shadow of the Communion Table…I think you’ll see the point.