Love That Is Not Love
On one hand I could stay, and be your lovin' man
But the reason I must go, is on the other hand. —Randy Travis
"The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'You shall not covet,' and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Romans 13:9).
Some years ago I sat with my friend Ron Ritchie in a counseling session with a young man we both knew and loved. He was telling us about a new affection that had come into his life, a wonderful, vivacious, attractive, warm-hearted, understanding woman—and this despite the fact that he was already married. "This is a new life for me," our friend gabbled on enthusiastically. “But you wouldn’t understand."
"Oh, but I do," Ron said, nodding his head and looking very serious. "You do?" the man replied in surprise. "Yeah," Ron deadpanned. "It's called adultery."
Exactly. Love precludes cheating on one's spouse and children, as well as a host of other god-awful sins.
Love is a perfectly good word that has fallen on hard times. It's used these days to cover a host of misdeeds, namely the thoroughly selfish hot-headed, whole-hearted, unbridled pursuit of another person’s body regardless of marital status or any other consideration. (Children be damned.) This person is so beautiful, so exciting, so loving, so kind, so interesting, so right, yada, yada, yada... This must be love!
"Hogwash," Paul would say. The love of which Jesus spoke and speaks today means copying the long-term, patient, sacrificial—pedestrian, if you will—love of Jesus himself, and in that love there is no place for adultery or any other form of sexual misconduct. No, love keeps its word and stays its course and pays its price no matter what hardship it encounters. "Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds."
First century Romans agreed that Christians, no matter what else could be said of them, were not sexually immoral. That was a curious anomaly for them in their benighted, sex-saturated day.
Would that could be said of us today.
David Roper
4.4.19
