What’s the Essence of Love?

Audio Transcript

Hey and welcome again to the podcast on this Thursday. Properly, what’s love? That’s a timeless query. As you recognize, Pastor John, sometimes we get questions in regards to the nature of affection — God’s love for us, our love for God, our love for one another — and what it signifies that “God is love,” as 1 John 4:8 tells us. On high of this, we get questions on how pleasure pertains to love, too, which is a part of what we imply by Christian Hedonism. You talked about some time again that you just have been working by way of 2 Corinthians lately and noticed one thing that pertains to all of those questions that I simply talked about and ties all of them collectively in a stunning means. Are you able to summarize your discovery from 2 Corinthians and clarify the way it touches on all these questions on love and pleasure?

I can strive. And it was stunning not solely as a result of, for being so easy, it has huge implications for the very nature of God himself, and the way he loves himself, and the way we love him, and the way he loves us — but in addition, it was stunning as a result of what I noticed was not present in some high-soaring a part of Paul’s writings, however relatively in a really down-to-earth, sensible interplay with the Corinthians about his journey plans. You don’t anticipate finding huge implications in regards to the nature of actuality as any individual’s speaking about their journey plans.

Paul’s Pleasure and Theirs

Let me learn 2 Corinthians 2:1–4 and make three observations as we undergo this textual content. And these three observations are simply mind-blowingly huge of their implications.

1. Their pleasure is his pleasure.

Right here’s what he wrote: “I made up my thoughts to not make one other painful go to to you.” After which he offers the explanation for why he’s not going to make a sorrowful, painful go to to them. He says, “[Because] if I trigger you [sorrow], who’s there to make me glad however the one whom I’ve [grieved]?” (2 Corinthians 2:1–2).

“Within the fellowship of the Trinity, earlier than there have been any folks to like, God was love. God was loving God.”

So, the primary commentary I make is that the explanation Paul decides to not make a painful go to is as a result of, if their pleasure goes down, Paul’s pleasure goes down, which means that their pleasure is in some measure Paul’s pleasure. He finds his pleasure of their pleasure. If theirs goes up, his goes up; if theirs goes down, his goes down. That’s commentary primary. Paul’s pleasure is in some measure theirs, or theirs is in some measure his, in order that if theirs goes down — which a painful go to would trigger — his would go down. He doesn’t need that, so he doesn’t go.

2. His pleasure is their pleasure.

He goes on, “And I wrote as I did” — so he’s scripting this letter as an alternative of going — “in order that once I got here I may not undergo [sorrow] from those that ought to have made me rejoice.” Now, why did Paul not need to be made sorrowful? I imply, you would possibly assume, Properly, that’s apparent. However no, it’s not apparent. Hear — why did Paul not need to be made sorrowful? He says this: “[Because] I felt positive of all of you, that my pleasure can be the enjoyment of you all” (2 Corinthians 2:3).

So, my second commentary is that the explanation Paul wrote a letter as an alternative of constructing this painful go to is that his pleasure was their pleasure. That’s what he says. I’m not even drawing it out as an implication. He simply says it: “my pleasure can be the enjoyment of you all.” So, if his pleasure goes down by a painful go to, their pleasure goes to go down, as a result of his pleasure is, in some measure, he says, their pleasure. That’s my second commentary.

3. Love finds pleasure in others’ pleasure.

Now, right here’s the remainder of the textual content, 2 Corinthians 2:4. He describes the identical need now — to not make a painful go to, however to jot down as an alternative — solely this time when it comes to being motivated not by pleasure however by love. Right here’s what he says: “For I wrote to you out of a lot affliction and anguish of coronary heart and with many tears, to not trigger you [sorrow] however to let you recognize the plentiful love that I’ve for you.”

So, my third commentary is that, in Paul’s thoughts, love means discovering our pleasure within the pleasure of the opposite, the beloved. He didn’t need their pleasure to be undermined as a result of their pleasure was his pleasure. And he didn’t need his pleasure to be undermined as a result of his pleasure was their pleasure. After which he steps again and says, “That’s what it means to like you.”

We all know Paul is writing as a Christian and, from different issues that he says even on this guide, that Christian pleasure is pleasure that has God in Christ as its focus. So, the definition of affection that he offers right here is that this: love is discovering our pleasure within the pleasure of the beloved in God. After they have pleasure in God, that’s our pleasure, and we’re prepared to put down our lives to result in their pleasure in God. God is prepared to put down his life to result in our pleasure in God.

Love Throughout the Trinity

Now, we have to step again and check this, to see if we’re onto one thing right here, and I feel we’re onto one thing vastly important.

Let’s begin by testing it with final love. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Earlier than there was creation, God was God, and God was love. Which signifies that within the fellowship of the Trinity, earlier than there have been any folks to like, God was love. And within the fellowship of the Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — God was loving God. In Matthew 3:17, God says to his Son, “That is my cherished Son” (my translation). After which he says, “With [him] I’m effectively happy” — that’s, delighted, joyful. That’s what it means for the Father to like the Son. “I take pleasure in my Son infinitely. He’s completely pleasurable, and that’s what it means to like him.” It says the identical factor in John 14:31 in regards to the Son loving the Father.

So, throughout the Trinity, to like is to be infinitely happy, infinitely delighted, infinitely joyful with one another. And what makes them pleasing? What’s it that makes the Father pleasing to the Son and the Son pleasing to the Father? What makes them pleasing is that they’re the form of particular person — every one among them is the form of particular person — who’s completely happy by what’s completely pleasing. That’s what it means to be righteous, holy, simply, good — specifically, God. They discover their pleasure within the pleasure of the beloved in God. The Father delights within the Son as a result of the Son is completely delighting within the Father (and vice versa). So, the definition that Paul used works eternally within the Godhead.

Love Between God and Us

Now, what about God’s love for us? Right here’s Psalm 147:10–11: “[God’s] delight . . .” Get that fastened in your thoughts: God’s delight. What delights God? “[God’s] delight will not be within the power of the horse, nor his pleasure within the legs of a person, however the Lord takes pleasure . . . in those that hope in his steadfast love.” Now, if hope is eager for and anticipating one thing sooner or later that you just enjoyment of — that might make you content — then this psalm teaches that God delights in those that enjoyment of him. That’s, divine love for us is God’s discovering his pleasure in our pleasure in him. And we could add then, appearing: God acts to safe our pleasure in him, and he acts at the price of his personal Son’s life, which is what the Bible underlines in regards to the wonderful side of this love.

“Love is discovering our pleasure within the pleasure of the beloved in God — and our willingness to die to deliver that about.”

What about our love for God? First Timothy 1:11 says that God is a cheerful God, a blessed God (makarios). And we’ve seen that, within the fellowship of the Trinity, God is a cheerful God. He’s delighting within the fellowship of the Trinity. God is an eternally comfortable God. So, for us to like God is to be glad that he’s God. To like God is to say, “God, you’re God, and I’m glad, and also you fulfill me. You’re fantastic. You’re excellent. I like, I treasure, I’m happy in you.” And our love for God, then, is to seek out our pleasure in God’s pleasure, which is pleasure in God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Love Between Us and Others

Another software. What about our love for one another? In 2 Corinthians 8:2, Paul says that the Macedonians had an abundance of pleasure within the grace of God. It was plentiful; it was overflowing. After which he calls it love in 2 Corinthians 8:8 when this pleasure — this pleasure in grace, in God’s grace — overflows in generosity to the poor saints in Jerusalem.

And what’s generosity? Generosity is the eagerness to provide in order that others expertise extra pleasure. That’s what you do once you’re beneficiant. You need folks to be bettered. You need them to have extra pleasure, extra lasting pleasure, deeper pleasure in what ought to give them the deepest pleasure — on this case, extra pleasure in life (they have been poor, they have been struggling, they have been dying). He desires extra pleasure in life and extra pleasure in God as they reside. So, love is the overflow of the Macedonians’ pleasure because it expands to incorporate the poor saints in Jerusalem in that very pleasure in God’s grace.

So, to my amazement, Tony — and I’m nonetheless blown away by this — a easy definition of affection, turning up in Paul’s clarification of his journey plans in 2 Corinthians 2, seems to be nearly as profound and far-reaching as it may possibly probably be. Love is discovering our pleasure within the pleasure of the beloved in God — and our willingness to die to deliver that about — which proves to be the essence of affection within the Trinity, love in God for us, our love for God, and our love for one another. And it exhibits how central pleasure is in defining final actuality.