“Love Is…”
Figuring Out the Fourth Theme of Advent
As we come to the fourth week of Advent, the most commonly followed tradtions make “love” the theme. That’s not too surprising, but it does create a bit of a problem. As Matt Chandler said in a recent sermon, in our culture “love” is a word like that garbage drawer in your kitchen–if you don’t know what it is or where it should go, it goes there. That’s how we treat “love.” We love our spouses, our children, our dog, a favorite movie, and In-n-Out burgers (that’s my thought, not his). Because we apply the word so broadly, we don’t really have a meaning we can hang on to, other than “fondness for.” Is that enough? Certainly it is for a burger, but probably not for my wife!
Christians are to love God with everything they are. We are to love one another, our neighbor, and our enemies. Interestingly enough, the word the NT writers use most often in these cases in one you’ve heard of–agape. It wasn’t the most commonly used word for love at the time, but it became a Christian identifier. And that word, alone among the other words for “love” is associated with three concepts.
The first is doing. This is not primarily a feeling, although it certainly can involve them. It is a love that acts. To love people is to act on their behalf. When I love my neighbor, I am ready and willing to do those things that are for his good.
The second, related concept is sacrifice–love like this is giving love. The actions of this love are often costly–when I give of my time, or attention, or resources to one I love, those quantities are no longer mine to spend.
The third concept is choice. We can have feeling for a person that can ebb and flow. But with agape, a choice is made to love another through those emotional and situational ups and downs. Sometimes we don’t understand how that choice is made in the lives of others–we may say, “how did she wind up loving him?” But she did, and she does.
Love is active, love is sacrificial, and love flows from a decision. That is the heart of the Advent story. Those that God set out to redeem (his choice), he has acted to save, and done so at great cost.
“This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us, and gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
The story of Advent is the revelation, through incarnation, of what love is, coming from the One who is the only one who defines love–God is love. How loving is God? The Father has chosen to love those who are not inherently lovable, sent his one and only Son to be their Savior, and to pour out the wrath those he loves deserve upon that one Son. The Son’s love is also on display, setting aside his glory and coming to be born in Bethlehem, limiting the exercise of his attributes to be one of us, and dying for us. The Spirit, whose fruit in our lives is love, led Jesus throughout his life, and empowered the resurrection and is sent into us as the very presence of God to make us like Jesus.
Advent is God’s gift of love being delivered to us!
