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 If
you have neither time nor inclination to think, you may skip
this page— but there is a treasure in the following quote if you
will take it.
“St.
John’s saying that God is love has long been balanced in my mind
against the remark of a modern author (M. Denis de Rougemont) that
‘love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god’;
which of course can be re-stated in the form ‘begins to be a demon
the moment he begins to be a god’. This balance seems to me an
indispensable safeguard. If we ignore it the truth that God is love
may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God.
I
suppose that everyone who has thought about the matter will see what
H. de Rougemont meant. Every human love, at its height, has a
tendency to claim for itself a divine authority. Its voice tends to
sound as if it were the will of God Himself. It tells us not to
count the cost, it demands of us a total commitment, it attempts to
override all other claims and insinuates that any action which is
sincerely done ‘for love’s sake’ is thereby lawful and even
meritorious. That
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erotic love and love of one’s country may thus
attempt to ‘become gods’ is generally recognized. But family
affection may do the same. So, in a different way, may
friendship.” (C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves)
Modern
theology makes love the basis of spiritual fellowship, but TRUTH is
the basis of fellowship, not love. (1 Jn. 2:24) We “have in
common” a “sharing relationship” that is acceptable in God’s
sight, only when we acknowledge God’s rule as superior to any
emotion or expression of our own. The “Jesus People” err in
thinking that love will unite all men “in Christ.” Situation
ethics and the “new morality” have grown out of this viewing of
love as “authority.”
“This
is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His
commandments are not grievous.” (1 Jn. 5:3) The true love of God
in our hearts will demonstrate itself in our submission to His will,
What a travesty, that man would claim a divine attribute as his
excuse for ignoring or supplanting the divine will.
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