Weekly Thought > Personal Growth > Right kind of Love
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Right kind of Love
C.S. Lewis did a series on B.B.C. on the four types of love. In English we deprive ourselves of that precision by using the one word love for everything from Mother love to Potato love (I love French fries!) I like to think of two types of love: scriptural and Hollywood. Scriptural is the type we see in I Corinthians 13; Hollywood is the type that we see on TV and movie screens. Scriptural love emphasizes what I can do for another while Hollywood magnifies what the other person can do for me. One is selfless; the other is selfish.
With a majority of our culture's subscribing to Hollywood love there is no surprise that 50% of our marriages end in divorce. I have observed that genuine love is spontaneous and excessive. It doesn�t wait for anniversaries, birthdays or holidays to express itself. There is that sudden wish to do something giving for the one that I love. When you hear a young man describing the qualities of his new love you realize how excessive genuine love is. My Father had this kind of love for my Mother. One Christmas when we could hardly get by he bought a German chime clock out of his deep emotion for her. Being a very practical person, my Mother was not overwhelmed but she was reassured of his very deep love for her.
Christians don't always follow the scriptural model. The Hollywood model is so persuasive in our culture that even believers fall into the trap. One well-known Christian performer became dissatisfied with what she was getting out of the marriage and rationalized that God wanted her to be happy. Since she wasn't happy with her husband she decided that it was God's will for her to divorce him. Christian love should mirror Christ's love. As He gave Himself for us we should give ourselves to others in the same unconditional way.
This week think about: 1) Do I love according to scripture or Hollywood? 2) How can I be spontaneous in my love? 3) When do I put the good of others first?
