On Spiritual Love:

So, I’ve decided to try and get ahead in my sermon preparation and I settled on preaching a four part series on the Church as my first sermon series. I’ve been excited about it! I asked my brother-in-law, Kevin, for a few recommendations of books to read to deepen my understanding of the nature and role of the Church. He pointed me to a book written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer called Life Together.

I have finished the first chapter… and I had to stop long enough to try and ‘digest’ what I’ve read. I went into reading this book hoping that it would help me develop some ideas in my Church 101 sermons… what I didn’t expect was to be convicted and deeply challenged.

First of all, Bonhoeffer spends about five or six pages contrasting what he calls ‘Human’ love with what he calls ‘Spiritual’ love. There were some things within this theme that really got me thinking about my own relationships within the church. Listen to what Bonhoeffer writes: “Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ’s sake.”

True spiritual love, according to Bonhoeffer, is Christ-centered: “Spiritual love, however, comes from Jesus Christ, it serves him alone; it knows that it has no immediate access to other persons.” And Bonhoeffer would say that true Spiritual Love is the only love that will bring genuine unity to the Church of Christ. “For Jesus Christ alone is our unity.” Bonhoeffer also suggests that these two types of ‘loves’ will manifest themselves in two very distinct ways: Human love will show up in the form of desire… Spiritual love will show up in the form of service.

Bonhoeffer may not be 100 percent right… I happen to think that there is profound wisdom within all of this… but my goal in writing this post isn’t to critique his writings. This whole contrast between ‘human’ and ‘spiritual’ love has caused me to revisit my motives for being in various relationships and friendships. We all develop various relationships for various reasons: Similar interests, loneliness, to find a spouse, to make someone else jealous, similar personalities, similar life experiences, to brown nose or position ourselves for personal benefit, etc. While some of those reasons may be good reasons, Bonhoeffer would suggest that none of those reasons represent true spiritual love.

Do I primarily develop my relationships with God on my mind? Honestly, not very often. But what would change in my life if I did? Perhaps I would start serving people because it pleased God rather than because it made me feel good about myself. If the main goal of my relationships changed from being about what I would get and turned towards how God would be glorified through it… I imagine my actions and responses would drastically change. If it’s truly not about me, then I really shouldn’t get defensive in an argument. If my decisions are reinforced with the idea that God should be the center of each of my relationships… wouldn’t that make it much easier to make the decision to serve?

Pastors can make the mistake of making the ministry revolve around them… and making the ministry revolve around their personal skill set. Focusing on spiritual, Christ-centered love will help combat this tendency. Shame on me if I have developed ‘Josh’ followers rather than Christ followers.

Anyway… just wanted to share some of my thoughts in a public forum like this. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted something like this anyway.