THE TWELVE C’S OF LOVE October 2011 C IS FOR CONCERNS
C IS FOR CONCERNS
Introduction
Two elements to be repeated here are these: both of these elements are based in the life of Jesus Christ and as such are to become ours as we mature up into Him as His own. First, the Christian life is a vicarious life; it is a life for others in His Name. It is not to be lived as we wish, or for us. It is to be lived unto Him and that means it is to be loving of others in His Name. Second, it is a life extending God’s love with which we are immersed so God can love-gift others through us. We are here to love them for Him. This means that at the very heart of who we are, what we have been called to be and do, is in fulfillment of His concerns for His own. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is to be extended in and by us to His world. So, what is to concern us is what concerns Him, and when we understand these concerns we discover what He wills for each and every one of us.
We are not here for ourselves; we are here for Him. And because we are here for Him, what was true of Jesus now becomes true for us as well. We are to be extensions of His incarnation; we are here to do the will of the Father just as He Himself fulfilled it. Our life, then, is to be a living out of His concerns for His own, for His world, and for the Kingdom we now possess by being in Him. Whatever He calls us to be and do, it is in fulfillment of His will for us. And that becomes the basis of our worldview. We are to live it out as led and empowered by Him alone.
The Formation of Love’s Worldview
When we examine our life’s concerns, it helps us understand what we have chosen as the basis of our worldview. For example, how would you answer the following that flows out of your own heart, mind, and concerns?
1. What are my concerns for my partner/mate?
The New Testament points out what God’s concerns are for us as persons and what ours need to be for ourselves. But what are our basic heart-felt concerns for our partner/mate? What do I want my life’s partner to be able to achieve and experience in his/her walk with Him and with me? I need to be able to spell out those concerns for, first of all, He is far more concerned for him/her than I could ever be, but if they are His concerns, then they have to become mine. By putting those concerns ahead of my own for me, then I know love is at work. To M. Scott Peck, love is “the extending of the self on behalf of the other, and putting the other’s ahead of one’s own.” This is love in action. This is how God’s love operates.
If my career or work or whatever is more important to me than that of the other’s, then that is not the love that is truly needed from me. If my well-being, hobbies, pleasure and desires come first, that is not how love operates. I have a lot of growing to do so when I do say, “I love you,” here’s proof of what that really means. My concerns for you are what motivate me.
2. What are my concerns for my children?
Are my kids to be extensions of me and made to make me look good, or are they to become what God chooses for them to be and do? First of all, I want them to know Him and to mature up into Him in age-appropriate ways. I want them to be able to achieve their God-given potential and to become all they can be for His sake and for their own. They are not mine; they are His, on loan to me to and for Him. My concerns for them determine how I relate to them, how I care for them, and how I encourage them in their growth and development. They have the freedom to grow up in Him and to know I am here for them. What I can ask of them is that they honor Him and follow the example of how I honor Him with my own life and development. God is to make their life’s choices for them; I am here to assist them in discovering how to achieve that to His glory and their joy as well as mine.
3. What are my concerns for family members?
Beyond the immediate family is the extended family, the clan of which I am a part as one of God’s gifts to me. How am I to fit into this mix and how am I to matter in its direction, depth and dimensions? What is the role I believe I need to play in it? What is expected of me as a part of this clan?
4. What are my concerns for friends?
God has brought people into my life that I may become a source of encouragement for them as well as they are a resource for my life and walk with Him. How does He desire all this to take shape? I need friends but more than that I need to be a friend to others. These extended relationships add a depth and challenge as well as a rich source of serendipity along the way. What does all this mean to me; what does my friendship mean to them and their journey? What are my concerns for others?
5. What are my concerns for the “stranger”…those unknown to me at present?
Love learns to love all. It learns to relate as Christ would with all. How am I to live out His love to those I meet along life’s way? Love’s only fear is missing the mark of loving another. I am here to love-gift them in His Name.
6. What are my concerns for His world?
Love never isolates itself from the needs of all others. And love certainly does not insulate itself to these needs. Like Jesus, it lives and acts vicariously. Love carries the world in its heart. Love is willing to give until the real needs are met in good measure. This is its mission.
7. What are my concerns for the Kingdom of God on Earth?
How is that Kingdom to be furthered? What is to be my role in its formation? What does it require of me in the fulfilling of His will? Whose Kingdom am I building, anyway? Mine, or His? If it is His, then I have to be very clear and committed to what His will is for me in it.
How These Concerns Take Shape
1. Love is concerned for persons
It sees the worth of all others and its focus is on them and their well-being. Anything that takes away from another’s worth is a focus for action and intervention. It puts others above self-interest and self-being, and it extends itself on their behalf. The world needs my love-gift in His Name.
2. Love is concerned for relationships
It loves God by loving others in His Name. It prizes relationships and treats them redemptively and forgivingly. It seeks to relate as Jesus would and is content in following His example alone.
3. Love is concerned for situations
What diminishes another diminishes something in me that forces me to focus on protecting the worth of all others. Love works, fights, and claims justice and peace for all others. It cannot sit idly by and watch others disenfranchised or downtrodden or abused.
4. Love is concerned for conditions
What robs and cheats others is an attack on love. It diminishes the well-being of others. What real needs are going unmet and why? Conditions can be changed and challenged. Our well-being depends on that of all others. Love considers no one expendable.
5. Love is concerned for real needs
Finding a real need and meeting it in good measure is love’s goal. It thinks and acts globally. Seeing that no real need goes unmet is its challenge. How did we ever get so “me-conscious”? Are we that distant from Him and His ideals for His world?
6. Love is concerned for life
Love speaks for those who have no voice. It helps those who have no real help. What degrades others degrades us all. The Kingdom of Love must prevail for all. This is what has to shape our thinking and our acting.
7. Love is concerned for the King, the Kingdom, and the Kin
How am I to serve the King of Kings? How am I to be used of Him in advancing His Kingdom? How can I serve the Kin here and now? Love asks all these questions of me and how I answer is the extent of my love for Him as Lord of All.
8. Love is concerned for God’s world in God’s way
Are God’s concerns my concerns? If not, why not? Can they be met in God’s way to God’s glory? If not, why not? What is there on His heart I am not aware of and why? I must know, if I am to glorify Him. Nothing in all of life is more important than answering these questions before Him.
9. Love is concerned for things eternal
Working with eternal values in view is how Jesus lived. I must learn to do the same. Living in the hope of all that is to come is the Lord’s Prayer being lived out. It must become my prayer. Keeping God’s big picture in view is how Jesus did it. That must become true of me as well.
10. Love willingly enters God’s concerns
Of course it costs to take on God’s concerns, but not to do it is the greater loss. Ask Jesus how much it costs. What’s more important than being found faithful as Jesus was? Love is eternal and with love nothing is ever lost. Without love life is nothing.
Conclusion
Our role in His world is determined by Him and His concerns. They need to become ours. Our life in His world is to be determined by His concerns, never just by our own. Until His concerns become ours, we are not in step with Him and His. Fulfilling His concerns is not an option for love.
You say, we can’t do everything that needs to be done. Why not? We are not doing it on our own. If it was impossible to do, why then would God lead us into it? How do we know it can’t be done? How well have we really tried? How much do we leave to others? Love calls us to do it as unto Him, or to die trying!
There is no real need but what you and God can meet it. E. M. Bounds, in his book on The Power of Prayer, states people are looking for better methods in the changing of His world. Bounds responds, “What God is looking for is not better methods, just better Christians.” Love makes the best Christians possible!
Dr. Emil J. Authelet
eauthelet@cox.net
NEXT MONTH:
C IS FOR COMPASSION
