But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Summary: Love, the poet says, is a ‘many splendored thing.’ Yet when it comes to describing what those ‘splendors’ are, we sometimes get stuck.
One thing we can be fairly confident of when we focus on Paul’s advice to Timothy is that he wasn’t suggesting Timothy pursue romantic love.
Sometimes, of course, it is the other way around. Romantic love pursues the man! Many a young pastor has discovered that they are more popular with the fair sex than they could have imagined. Sometimes even older ones fall victim to this trap. (Satan isn’t proud when it comes to subverting God’s church. There is nothing he will not stoop to.)
The kind of “love” Paul recommends pursuing is quite different.
When we talk about the love Paul is referring to, it is easy to ‘zone out’ and let our minds wander to some other topic. Godly love can sound ‘churchy’ and maybe even a bit stuffy. After all, we are talking about a God who has been around a long, long time and who in ancient times was responsible for plagues, people dying in battle, and sending Jesus to the cross.
Maybe if we substitute “nice” for the word “love,” God will let us get by with that.
The word Paul actually used is, of course, the Greek word “agapē.” Agapē is often referred to as “godly love” to set it apart from other forms of love. It includes affection but runs very deep in terms of being willing to make sacrifices for the one you love.
One way to think of agapē is as a kind of ‘selfless love.’
This makes sense when we consider the two Great Commandments as Jesus summarized them.* The first is to love God above all else, including yourself. This means that we put God’s will above our own. Interestingly, putting God first guarantees our thoughts and actions will reflect his love because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
The second Great Commandment does something similar. It simply says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Here again we sacrifice putting ourselves first so that we can treat our neighbors as God would have them treated.
Application: Love well.
Food for Thought: What does loving our neighbor look like?
* Matthew 22:37-40
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