Four Expressions of Love...

The Great Commandment has long been held up as the kingpin of Christian ambitions. Jesus, when pressed to provide the greatest of all commands to be followed, quickly quoted a passage from the Old Testament that called people toward extravagant love.

But it wasn’t just a simple singular love, it was a four-fold love that spoke of a deep, wide, high, and long affection. A heart, soul, mind, and strength love. You can call these love languages, a variety of love-expressions that come from a diverse cross-section of humanity. Each love language is critical; none of them is better than another. These sects of love that dwell within a church speak of the beautiful body of Christ, and when each is appreciated and affirmed, the gates of hell can’t stop her from astonishing the world with her beauty. It is these personalities; it is this love that we want to hold up as primal in our followership of Christ.

Mark 12:30 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

The Artist – gives an emotional Love (with all your heart)

The Aesthetic – gives a spiritual Love (with all your soul)

The Academic – gives a logical Love (with all your mind)

The Activist – gives a physical Love (with all your strength)

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One Love – Four Expressions

No one has a corner on the truth…the best they will ever have is a corner of the truth.

We, by nature, gravitate to and validate the corner of the truth that represents us.

Once we find it, we tend to think of it as the best of the four, and then figure out a way to discredit or diminish the other expressions of love as lesser in value.

So many of the prejudices in the church are nothing more than urban legends, conspiracy theories and old wives tales passed down from one dysfunctional generation to the next. We must resist these myths.

We must resist this foolish pigeonholing that has crippled the body of Christ for too long…

This is why Jesus cried out with passionate frustration a prayer of unity that echoes out to the hard of hearing church of God even today…

John 17:20

20"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

In this passage you see that The Godhead was one even though they were different persons. He calls the church to be one in the same sort of way. I love how this passage said that Jesus was into the Father and that the Father was into the Son. They were into each other. They affirmed each others roles. As you look at the Scriptures, you see that each person of the Godhead is continually affirming the person and personality of the others. Check out these verses...

The Son was into the Father

John 5:19
- Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

John 14:28 - "I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

The Father was into the Son

John 3:35 - The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.

Matthew 17:5
- While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

The Son was into the Spirit

John 16:7 - But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

John 14:12 - I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

The Spirit was into the Son

John 15:26 -"The Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”

John 16:14 – “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”

The Spirit was into the Father

13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

John 15:26 - "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

The Father was into the Spirit

John 14:16-17 - And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.

John 14:26 - But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

God is calling the church to manifest what the Godhead manifested. "God in three persons, blessed Trinity." "The Church in four persons, blessed Unity." This seems to be God's plan for showing the world his love.

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John 17:20

20"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

What is at stake in this appreciation of all of the limbs of love is the glory. Without the glory being seen and celebrated in each human heart, the church stays malnourished and anemic, a sickly shell having a form of godliness, but denying the power.

Our glory has been passed down to us in the form of human personality and human giftings. He has designed us in unique ways to show forth his glory.

You see a cornucopia of personalities in the people Jesus called to follow him…

Peter and Andrew, Philip, James and John were all FISHERMEN. Matthew, who was also called LEVI, was a TAX COLLECTOR for the Roman government, which occupied Israel at that time. SIMON was a ZEALOT, a REBEL, who SO hated the ROMAN ARMIES and TAXES, that he used VIOLENCE in order to try to persuade the Romans to LEAVE his country. Nathaniel was a NOBLEMAN. Thomas was a SERVANT. JUDAS was a bookkeeper, or an accountant. PAUL was a TENTMAKER. And of course, Jesus Himself, BEFORE He began preaching, was a CARPENTER.

It takes all kinds of people to with one shared love.

My hope is that the church will become the answer to God's prayer before it's too late.