Friday, August 12, 2011
Passion vs. Love
All too often my day is filled with a flow of thoughts and desires that can seem random and out of control—and sometimes are. It seems to me that we ought to ask ourselves, daily, why we do what we do. Our life should not be a chaotic experience of doing what is instinctual. We are, after all, rational creatures, enabled by God’s design to chose “right”. But what is “right” for me as a follower of Jesus? When I look at the example of Jesus in the New Testament, what do I see? I see a man that is concerned with the heart of others.
Jesus offers his thoughts on this when having a discussion about healthy hygiene practices. Concerns had been expressed to Jesus about the failure of his disciples to wash their hands before eating: “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat” (Matthew 15:2 NET). Jesus makes it clear that a truly healthy lifestyle is a concern of the heart and not physical health. Not that physical health is not a good thing. Taking care of our physical body is of high priority. But not of the highest priority.
The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Matthew 15:18–19 NET
Far more important is a concern for the heart—obviously not meaning the physical one. And notice that this list of defilements are primarily, if not exclusively, concerned with how other people are viewed and treated.
This list of behaviors when compared to the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 (protecting, hoping, trusting, persevering) demonstrate the distinction between passion and love. In times past, the word passion was a negative term. As already mentioned this word has been brought into use in Christian circles as a kind of synonym for love. We ought to be careful in doing this and, perhaps, should avoid it.
The distinction that was made between passion and love in previous times was like the difference between a brush fire and a smithy or blacksmith forge.
I had the chance to see the difference between a forge and a brush fire up close and personal growing up in the American southwest. Every summer there were brush fires started by lightning in the rugged terrain around our ranch. You could see the smoke from miles way. When the wind came up, these fires were utterly impossible to contain. There could be a mile or more of a fire line moving at a rapid pace enveloping the brush and dry grass—up and down the rocky slopes of the dessert landscape. Wherever the wind would blow, that fire would consume.
On the ranch, I also had the chance to learn how to work in a smithy. The fire was carefully monitored and stoked for optimal heating of the metal. In the blacksmith furnace, the heat was far hotter than what occurred in a brush fire. Wildfires tend to burn up to around 1500°F whereas coal forges can reach 3000°F. But, the forge fire has to be tended with a constant supply of oxygen and fuel to keep a steady temperature. It has to be contained in a pan that can withstand the temperatures. When you have a good fire going, you can achieve amazing things. The hardest of steels and iron metals can be hammered and shaped according to your will. The forge has been responsible for a great many advances in human history—both for the sake of warfare and destruction, but even more so for advances in peaceful endeavors like agriculture and construction.
The difference between love in the human heart and a passion is like the difference between a forge fire and a wild fire. Our loves are guided and directed toward chosen ends. It is a thinking desire or a desiring intellect, as Aristotle put it. Our passion is like a wild fire. It is driven along wherever the wind takes it. Our postmodern societies are very taken with this conception of “love”, which is often merely passion. Whatever feels good, do it. Advertisers and marketing expertise often make their living on it. Sexuality is expressed and received whenever we have an urge. We are consumed by our passions and consume whatever we desire. This anarchy of the heart leads to massive suffering and destruction in many cases. Our unleashed passions destroy us: pleasure passions—obesity, debt, wasteful consumption ; sexual passions—broken promises and relationships; ambition passions—anger, slander, unethical practices.
The heart can be thought of as that deep part of the soul that determines how we make choices—it can determine our loves or unleash passions. It is the part of the soul that directs a person. What do I want? What desires should I pursue? The confusing thing about my experience as a human being is that I typically desire several things, or even many things, at one time. But, Jesus seems to be concerned with what a person wants to the greatest degree and having that greatest commitment determines how I order my life. It determines the relative importance and priority of all the other commitments. Therefore, if you want to determine what should be the proper character of a Christian’s love, you have to consider the highest objective of his or her love. You have to consider the nature of God and his love. The apprentice’s character and practices should be modeled after the master. It is His image that we were designed to bear. The character of our love ought to be constantly informed by and conformed to the love of God.
Jesus offers his thoughts on this when having a discussion about healthy hygiene practices. Concerns had been expressed to Jesus about the failure of his disciples to wash their hands before eating: “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat” (Matthew 15:2 NET). Jesus makes it clear that a truly healthy lifestyle is a concern of the heart and not physical health. Not that physical health is not a good thing. Taking care of our physical body is of high priority. But not of the highest priority.
The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Matthew 15:18–19 NET
Far more important is a concern for the heart—obviously not meaning the physical one. And notice that this list of defilements are primarily, if not exclusively, concerned with how other people are viewed and treated.
This list of behaviors when compared to the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 (protecting, hoping, trusting, persevering) demonstrate the distinction between passion and love. In times past, the word passion was a negative term. As already mentioned this word has been brought into use in Christian circles as a kind of synonym for love. We ought to be careful in doing this and, perhaps, should avoid it.
The distinction that was made between passion and love in previous times was like the difference between a brush fire and a smithy or blacksmith forge.
I had the chance to see the difference between a forge and a brush fire up close and personal growing up in the American southwest. Every summer there were brush fires started by lightning in the rugged terrain around our ranch. You could see the smoke from miles way. When the wind came up, these fires were utterly impossible to contain. There could be a mile or more of a fire line moving at a rapid pace enveloping the brush and dry grass—up and down the rocky slopes of the dessert landscape. Wherever the wind would blow, that fire would consume.
On the ranch, I also had the chance to learn how to work in a smithy. The fire was carefully monitored and stoked for optimal heating of the metal. In the blacksmith furnace, the heat was far hotter than what occurred in a brush fire. Wildfires tend to burn up to around 1500°F whereas coal forges can reach 3000°F. But, the forge fire has to be tended with a constant supply of oxygen and fuel to keep a steady temperature. It has to be contained in a pan that can withstand the temperatures. When you have a good fire going, you can achieve amazing things. The hardest of steels and iron metals can be hammered and shaped according to your will. The forge has been responsible for a great many advances in human history—both for the sake of warfare and destruction, but even more so for advances in peaceful endeavors like agriculture and construction.
The difference between love in the human heart and a passion is like the difference between a forge fire and a wild fire. Our loves are guided and directed toward chosen ends. It is a thinking desire or a desiring intellect, as Aristotle put it. Our passion is like a wild fire. It is driven along wherever the wind takes it. Our postmodern societies are very taken with this conception of “love”, which is often merely passion. Whatever feels good, do it. Advertisers and marketing expertise often make their living on it. Sexuality is expressed and received whenever we have an urge. We are consumed by our passions and consume whatever we desire. This anarchy of the heart leads to massive suffering and destruction in many cases. Our unleashed passions destroy us: pleasure passions—obesity, debt, wasteful consumption ; sexual passions—broken promises and relationships; ambition passions—anger, slander, unethical practices.
The heart can be thought of as that deep part of the soul that determines how we make choices—it can determine our loves or unleash passions. It is the part of the soul that directs a person. What do I want? What desires should I pursue? The confusing thing about my experience as a human being is that I typically desire several things, or even many things, at one time. But, Jesus seems to be concerned with what a person wants to the greatest degree and having that greatest commitment determines how I order my life. It determines the relative importance and priority of all the other commitments. Therefore, if you want to determine what should be the proper character of a Christian’s love, you have to consider the highest objective of his or her love. You have to consider the nature of God and his love. The apprentice’s character and practices should be modeled after the master. It is His image that we were designed to bear. The character of our love ought to be constantly informed by and conformed to the love of God.
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