Recently, I thought about a statement in Galatians that said that maturity does not come through the law, but faith working through love. So I thought about the definitions of faith and love and was surprised by how simple and connected the Christian life is. It just makes sense. With the complexities of life, I seek simplicity so I can make sense of it all and focus my heart and mind. So, here are my thoughts that are in process, I hope they help you.
The bookends of the 7 Character Qualities are “Love God” and “Love others”, the Greatest Commandment. They go together. You cannot have one without the other. “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (1 John 4:21).
The reason we are able to love others is because God first loved us. And we are able to love others because we have received God’s love, we understand it and experience it, and therefore we can share it with others. How do we receive God’s love? Through faith.
Paul says in Galatians that the law does not lead to spiritual maturity, but only faith working through love. Well, if that is the key, then it seems like we should know what faith and love are and how they work together. Here is a simple definition of each…
Faith – Believing someone has your best interest in mind.
Love – Having someone else’s best interest in mind.
I heard a friend of mine explain love as having someone else’s best interest in mind. He said he read it from Dallas Willard. I think this sums it up. If I love you, then I will think and act on your behalf, wanting the best for you. I love my wife and kids, so I live for their behalf. God loves me. He has my best interest at heart. Not “best interest” as I define it. You know how we define interests… money, success, and nice stuff. He has our best interested as he defines it. That we may know him and experience that relationship and grow into godly maturity.
Faith, by itself, is a pretty neutral word. To have faith in something. I can have faith that a chair will hold me when I sit in it. I act on it, but it is not really life changing. But when we apply faith to something significant, it changes our lives. What does it mean to have faith in God in its simplest form? It means to believe that God has our best interest at heart. There is a lot packed into that. First of all, it is God. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. So He not only has our best interest at heart, but he can do anything about it. Therefore, we know that all things happen for good, because he has our best interest at heart and He is controlling all things as He acts on that attitude toward us. The most powerful sentence in the human language is… God Loves Me.
In order to live a life loving others at every moment, we have to have faith. The biggest thing that keeps me from loving others is that I am trying to take care of myself. There is part of me that is not satisfied with who I am or what I have, so I am seeking my interest, not others. There is a disconnect between my faith in God and my loving others. If I truly live in the reality that God loves me, that He has my interest at His heart and He is acting on it, then I am free to love others. Nothing left for me to worry about for me, because God is acting on my behalf. Now I am free to act on other’s behalf.
Now, imagine a community of people who live in this reality. In this community, not only do I experience the fact that God has my best interest at heart, but others do also. I now experience the biggie, having faith in God, but I also experience having faith in people. I believe that people have my best interest at their hearts. And as I act on behalf of others, putting their best interest at my heart, how do you think they will feel?
Lord, help me live in the reality that You have my best interest at Your heart (FAITH) and help me have others best’s interests at my heart (LOVE).
