| Beloved, With Valentine’s Day on Tuesday and Jacob and Anja’s wedding today, I’ve been thinking a lot about love. In his Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce defines it as “a temporary insanity curable by marriage.” Bierce’s definition would be hilarious if it weren’t so incredibly perceptive. For that is exactly what the devil wants us to think about both love and marriage! That love is a flash-in-the-pan, butterflies-in-the-belly twitterpation (Bambi, anyone?). That it is nothing more than a flippant romantic feeling that arises in the presence of someone you find attractive in appearance and personality. And that the quickest way to cure such “temporary insanity” is to get married. The devil is actually right about something. If you define love as a feeling of romantic ecstasy and emotional pleasure arising from your attraction to another human (or, in the case of some, another animal), marriage is certainly a cure to such! For before the honeymoon is even over, the blots and blemishes of your spouse will come to light. In fact, if you marry one of those guys who shoves cake in your face at the reception (young men, please don’t ever do this!), the blots and blemishes of your spouse will come to light before the wedding is even over. You will go from being twitterpated to being infuriated within an hour of saying your vows! The devil might be right about the fact that marriage is the death of what he calls love. But it is not the death of true love, that holy, enduring, treasuring affection which leads the lover to give himself for the eternal and temporal good of his beloved. When we rightly understand love, we understand that the intimate and vulnerable marriage relationship which exposes us in all our true colors is actually a gift from God to cure us from the insanity of living for ourselves. The marriage union is designed to be a breeding ground for true love and a cure from the madness of our pride. What is true of marriage is likewise true of our union with one another in the local church. If you view love as a fluffy, feel-good emotion, then one of the greatest ways to kill it is to join the local church and begin to cultivate deep relationships with the other members. You will quickly see how flawed they are, they will quickly see how flawed you are, and all twitterpation will die a quick and painful death. If that is your view of love, then you will likely bounce from church to church, going from one feel-good, emotional high to the next. But the true love that bears with others in their faults and failures and serves others selflessly and sacrificially is actually cultivated within the context of deep and messy relationships in the church over the long haul. Do you want to grow in the treasuring, self-giving affection that is love? Then give yourself to the imperfect people who together comprise this local body of believers at Cornerstone. Yes, we all have issues and differences. But that is the point! For that is how we are schooled in the nature of true love and grow to cultivate it in Christ. And true love, friends, is true piety. Our third core principle, God-delighting piety, flourishes as we brush shoulders with, pour our hearts out to, and selflessly serve one another. Holy fellowship with one another in the Holy Spirit is one of God’s chief cures for the insanity of our self-serving pride. Are we availing ourselves to this cure? Yours in Christ, Pastor Nick |
