Chapter Recap
- Paul began this chapter with an urgency to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices,
then on to the renewing of our minds and then to discovering our mission as defined by our
spiritual charismata. Now Paul wants us to plug ourselves-through our spiritual gifts-into
the socket of genuine, authentic love for those inside and outside the church.
Agape is Practical - Love is not a special kind of feeling, is the re-title of a
book that includes the sermons of Charles Grandison Finney, an important evangelist of the
Second Great Awakening. Here scripture confirms that view. Love is practical and cares for
each other’s needs. Such was destined to become a mark of the early church (cf. 1
Thess. 4:9-12).Syntactically, a string of participles and adjectives function to modify
the main verb of the opening sentence, “love-genuine!” [1] In other words,
Paul says that what follows are the ways that love will show itself to be the true version
rather than sentimentality or a good feeling or an abstract concept. Love will always do
what is good rather than what is evil, since this will be for the good of the other
person.
Origen [185-254] - God filled the soul with love, so that it might love God
and the things which God wants. But if the soul loves something other than God and what
God wants, this love is said to be artificial and invented. And if someone loves his
neighbor but does not warn him when he sees him going astray or correct him, such is only
a pretense of love . . . [2]
As a child, who was the
troublemaker in your family? Who was the peacemaker? [3]
Marva Dawn has written a thoughtful
homily based on this passage, entitled, “Love by Abhorring and Cherishing.” [4]