The Pastor's Message 

What is wrong with this statement:
"Love is not a feeling base on attraction, convenience, or a hit of pleasure"
Part 1

I received this statement yesterday from someone trying to define love for Valentines.  I for one had a problem with this definition of love because I see the scripture saying that disinterested benevolence toward God is evil. If you come to God dutifully offering him the reward of your fellowship instead of thirsting after the reward of his fellowship, then you exalt yourself above God as his benefactor and belittle Him as a needy beneficiary-and that is evil.   The only way to glorify the all-sufficiency of God in worship is to come to him because "in his presence is fullness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore" (Psalm 16:11).  Between man and God, on the vertical axis of life, the pursuit of pleasure is not just tolerable; it is mandatory - "Delight yourself in the Lord!" "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. "

Take the context of 1 Corinthians 13, for example.  Verse five says love does not seek its own. But is this meant so absolutely that it would be wrong to enjoy being loving?  In considering the wider Biblical context, the prophet Micah states that God has commanded us not simply to be merciful but to "love mercy." "He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).  In other words, the command is not just to do acts of mercy, but to delight to be merciful or to want to be merciful. If you love being merciful, how can you keep from satisfying your own desire in doing acts of mercy?  How can you keep from seeking your own joy in acts of love when your joy consists in being loving?  Does obedience to the command to "love mercy" mean you must disobey the teaching of 1 Corinthians 13:5 that love should not "seek its own"?

Pursuing the Pleasure of Loving God,

Pastor Glenn