Love Untainted by Lisa Bingham
March 13, 2008
Love is a great thing, perhaps the greatest of things. It is a natural occurrence and reaction. Yet to be realized in its purest form it must be worked out with much diligence and effort. The best expressions of love do not come easily. For, they can only be expressed at the cost of something of value to yourself, namely a part of yourself. It is impossible to show love in its truest form and keep yourself in mind, to be focused or concerned about yourself at all. Love can (and does) exist – pure, true, and untainted. Such a love is truly the greatest of things. Such a love is inherently selfless. Not self deprecating, or self depleting, but self-forgetting in being consumed with something more. Love is not the intense flattering or pleasing of others. But being so much more consumed with another being than with yourself that you desire only the absolute best for them, giving no thought to what that may cost you.
Is this the kind of love God has for us? I would challenge my own previous inclinations and say, yes. What a poor self-serving emotion we often declare love to be. What a poor representation we give of what love actually is. Can we not get outside of ourselves for one second to truly know and receive love – to be more concerned with someone else than with ourselves? Can we not see this great thing that God offers us – His perfect love. For God is Love. The only proper response from man to God is complete self-LESS-ness and complete God-MORE-ness – to be so completely consumed by Him that we forget ourselves altogether. And this response is only possible because He has done so for us first. He loved us first. And only when we give up any insistence upon ourselves are we able to fully love Him in return. Let all sense of self disappear that we may be consumed purely with our loving Creator. We were, indeed, created for this purpose – to love and be loved.
