I believe that I have stumbled across another application of the utility of love (this really shouldn't surprise me; indeed, I firmly hold that love is universally applicable, and ultimately, universally beneficial). I now apply it to the area of parenting.
I love my family. Why? Because they first loved me. Does this sound familiar? If you have read much of the Bible, it probably does. We love Christ, and others, because He first loved us.
I have been blessed with an ideal family. In fact, I cannot imagine a better upbringing. My family has shown me unfathomable love.
The result, I dare say, is that my incentive to rebel against my parents is practically null. Why should I rebel against my parents, if their actions are so transparently out of love for me? They always have my best interests in mind. Because they have been selfless in their lifestyle (see previous post), I feel in their debt. To demand more of them, directly by way of requests for more money for example (they have already paid my way through university), or indirectly by rebelling and hence requiring them to dedicate yet more time and effort to me as a person, would be beyond selfishness.
And yet, I often do rebel. How wretched I am. My sinful nature (NB: I always thought it was laughable that people, including myself, often attribute 'sin' to 'sinful nature' rather than 'human nature', as if it is somehow external from the self; even 'human nature' brings comfort from the idea that others also struggle with the same demons) compels me to rebel, whether I realise it at the time or not. I don't think that I rebel for the sake of rebelling; I am just selfish by nature.
How, then, can we rebel against God? As the ideal, perfectly holy parent, he literally died for us, gave us His Son, understanding this principle absolutely. Because we cannot understand His love, it makes us respond in kind. Usually. Or, perhaps, sometimes. Anyway, it should.
Rules are made to be broken. My parents understood this, I think, and God certainly does. The Law exists to show us our sin, and God's perfection, because he fulfills it through Christ when we never can. Love, on the other hand, is made to be reciprocated.
Moreover, Love is contagious. Referring to my previous posts, because we are eternally in our master's debt, we have no reason, indeed no right, to demand payment from our debtors. And so God's single act of Love, giving Christ to die for our sins, the embodiment of the fact that God is love, paid for everyone's debt. If we are in debt to Him, and somebody is in debt to us, then, bicariously, that person is no longer in debt to us but also to Him (indeed, this is perhaps something that financiers should have grasped; it may have saved us a whole lot of hassle when trying to untangle this financial crisis). We have no reason or right to treat them as subsurvient.
Hence we have an incentive to show love to our neighbour as well as to God. This I term the 'Jubilee Effect' of Love, due to the analogy of debt cancellation.
I think that Love transmits itself in two ways: through expansion, and through multiplication, both of which carry the Jubilee Effect.
Firstly, when love is shown, love is returned to the giver. The original giver is then a receiver, and this gives him/her even more reason to act in a loving way. Although this is chicken-and-egg, once it starts, even between two people its magnitude can multiply ad infinitum. It is for this reason that eternity will just keep getting better. It is for this reason, moreover, that I begin to understand the sanctity of a family. A group of people who act in a loving way to each other will indeed reap what they sow, and God will bless their commitment to each other exponentially.
Secondly, when somebody is shown love, they act in a loving way, not only to the giver but also to 'innocent bystanders'. If each of these people are struck by the love shown to them, they may go on to act similiarly, to others. It is through this mechanism that I begin to understand the importance of a principled society.
Returning to the first post on this blog, it is by the Jubilee Effect, transmitted both expansively and multiplicatively (are those words?) that the Divine Order must be implemented.
Think of what one act of Love can achieve, especially if under the right circumstances. Consider the Good Samaritan. The man he helped would surely be in his debt from that point on, both financially and figuratively. Do you think that he would then go on to treat other Samaritans in the way that was commonly practiced at the time - one of demeaning derogation, of demeaning marginalisation? How dare he? Why would he?
All you need is love.
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