Which? Love or Pride?

And first, what exactly is love? It is will to good or “bene-volence.” We love something or someone when we promote its good for its own sake. Love’s contrary is malice, and its simple absence is indifference. Its normal accompaniment is delight, but a twisted soul may delight in evil and take no pleasure in good.

Pride is defined by desire, not by love. It is, above all, the presumption that my desires should be fulfilled and that it is an injustice, a crying shame, and an injury if they are not.

Therefore, “love is from God” (1 John 4:7, PAR). And “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). All other loves are to be measured by this standard (Acts 17:31).

Now, as St. Augustine saw long ago, the opposite of love is pride. Love eliminates pride because its will for the good of the other nullifies our arrogant presumption that we should get our way. We are concerned for the good of others and assured that our good is taken care of without self-will. Thus pride and fear and their dreadful offspring no longer rule our life as love becomes completed in us. 

pp. 130-132 CAPTIVATING SOURCE


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Replacing/transforming our destructive ideas & images

Image
IMAGES: IDEAS PICTURED - Closely associated with governing ideas are images, which are concrete or specific as opposed to the abstractness of ideas. They are laden with feeling. In recent history, hair (long, short, skinhead, green, orange, purple) has provided powerful images of conflicting idea systems.  In many churches today, the services have divided into traditional and contemporary, so that the guitar and pipe organ are no longer just musical instruments but powerful symbols. Such divisions are not unimportant or sinful, but one does have to understand what drives such divisions in order to act responsibly in relation to them. Jesus carefully selected an image that conveys himself and his message: the cross. It presents the lostness of humans as well as the sacrifice of God and the abandonment to God that brings redemption. No doubt it is the all-time most powerful image and symbol of human history.  Ideas and images can be a stronghold of evil in the human self and
Read more

Distorted images of God

Image
Carefully placed images persuade us to forgo thinking and accept ideas we might normally question. For example, putting the flag of one’s country on a product or event aims to brand it as good and wholesome when it may not be. Images that seem benign in movies may also “teach” an idea that, if we thought about it, would appall us. But we unthinkingly accept the idea because we like the image.  TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Consider your images of God. While Scripture puts forth images such as breath and wind and fire and cloud, be honest with yourself: What really comes to mind when you think of God? For many, God is a benevolent giant who is too busy for them, a clever boss who pulls the rug out from under them just when they thought they knew what was going on, or a hard-nosed teacher who demands much of them. Give some thought to what ideas drive your images of God. What do you routinely think about God (even though you might never tell anyone at church)? Finish this sentence: G
Read more

Retaking our toxic thought life

Image
INFORMATION AND THE ABILITY TO THINK - Two other factors in our thought life can be used by God to break the power of the toxic system of ideas and images that make us dead to God. These are information (or facts) and our ability to think—to connect things in our mind.  After God has implanted new life from above in us by Word and Spirit, we must take the initiative in progressively retaking the whole of our thought life for God’s kingdom. Failure to know what God is really like and what his law requires destroys the soul, ruins society, and leaves people to eternal ruin: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” and “A people without understanding comes to ruin” (Hosea 4:6,14, NRSV).  This is the tragic condition of Western culture today, which has put away the information about God that God himself has made available. Spiritual formation requires thinking. The gospel of Jesus repudiates false information about God and the meaning of human life, and it works to und
Read more