Meditations from Zion

So, we’ve arrived at the 8th and last of the “steps” that Peter laid out in II Peter 1:3-11 to build or sustain a person’s faith over time.

I have always appreciated Pastor Craig’s definition of love as “doing what’s best for another person.” This is his definition of how we truly walk out agape love and that is a love whose source is the deepest place of the heart and comes about as a result of a conscious choice to love, not from a feeling.

I also like a book title I remember from my college days, “Love is a Verb.” Very simply, this phrase says it all: love carries actions with it. The hard part is accepting that loving others, acting in someone else’s best interests, and reaching out to them may not always be reciprocated. Love has to be rooted in our love for Christ or we will often feel like we are coming up short.

Pastor Craig says we are here on earth to love. And although I’m sure he is correct, I don’t believe we, as humans, are doing this very well. We certainly want to “be loved” and to “feel love” but we are not so quick to do the loving ourselves. There is too much chance for pain.

This is really the same point of view I shared On Brotherly Affection 3. If agape love is from the deepest place of the heart but we have walled off our heart for fear of being hurt or disappointed, our love is pretty puny. We keep our love “safe.” We don’t take risks. We don’t forgive.

Pastor Craig laid out a few helps to learning how to love… and the first one and most important is knowing and trusting that we are in the hands of God. This understanding is key to all of the steps we have discussed these past 50 days with Christ. Each element, whether it is faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, or love, must be rooted in our security that God is sovereign and God is loving (doing what is best for me) me and God is forgiving.