The Ultimate Valentine...
It's a coincidence that we've been digging into 1Cor. 13 for a couple of weeks now. It just happened to hit deeper on Valentine's Day! We discover that we cannot love unless God first loves us (1John). And the love described in 1Cor. 13 definitely has to be God-inspired and God-empowered. It's impossible to love that way otherwise. It's Agape love.
We've also been dissecting Deut. 6:4-5 for a bit. This passage is known as the Sh'ma or "Hear". Ironically, one can see the difficulty in hearing and understanding right off the bat in verse 4. The word for the name of God used here is Elohim, a plural of three or more. It speaks of the mystery of the Trinity, which still remains difficult for the Jews to accept and understand. But they will...
In regards to the meat of these passages, I've usually gone at them with my own effort. It's been about how much passion and devotion I can muster up. And I never can sustain the effort, thus I fall short again and again. It has to be God-empowered love. I do want to love God. And I want to know that I indeed do love God. I want to see evidence of that reality, so when I'm alone and in the dark, and Satan is taking shots at me, I can stand on the truth that I really do love my Lord and Savior.
So, I'm not big on numbers and patterns, but I can't help but notice a rhythm of sorts here. It mentions the three-part Trinity. Then it immediately mentions the three parts of loving God with heart, soul, and strength. The Spirit immediately brought to mind another three-part reference in Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live and move and have our being." That was cited as a quote from the Cretan philosopher Epimenides. This is definitely cherry-picking a verse out of context, but there's an interesting connection between the subjects of heart, soul, and strength matching up with living, moving, and having our being. Another rhythmical similarity is "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." John 14:6.
Since we are created in His image, is the Lord eluding to us having a three-part consistency that somehow perfectly unites with His Triune characteristics? Is He speaking of an intimacy that words can't express and the human mind can't comprehend? Is deep calling out to deep here? Is He shedding light on the great mystery of love and relationship with Him?
I'm not being dogmatic about this observation at all, but simply want to look at it in light of placing our spiritual relationship with God as the most important goal in our lives. If that relationship is the most important thing, then all of how we live is an expression of that fact. It's heart, soul, and strength. It's living, moving, and having our being. It's the Way, the Truth, and the Life, It's "whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Col. 3:17. It's loving Him as described in 1 Cor. 13. I've never looked at that passage as how I am to love Him!
So, as you can see, I've presented a jumbled up mess here! I just wanted to unpack some recent thoughts and begin chewing on them in the coming weeks. Centrally, we are looking at making our relationship with God the most important thing in this life and are seeking how that looks as we go about so many various activities and experiences along the way. You're welcome to join us on this journey of mystery and revelation!
