The Garden of the Heart Ep. 2—
1 John tells us that God is love. But does he really mean that literally? Or is this hyperbolic speech? This week we discuss the grounding reality of the Trinity, God’s divine love, and his divine humility which is his glory.
Here is the wonderful quote from Gordon Fee on his experience of writing his commentary on 1 Corinthians 13 (as shared by his daughter, Cherith Fee Nordling):
I remember the morning when I came to Paul’s description of love. I found it to be truly untranslatable. In most English translations it comes out as ‘Love is patient, love is kind.’ This way of translating Paul here tends to treat love as a thing that has characteristics like patience and kindness, or as a thing that God has and gives to us. However, the word ‘love’ here is actually a verb. It describes who God is by describing what God does. In other words, love is not statically patient but rather does patience. Love ‘patience-izes’ or something like that. ‘Patience’ also isn’t a very good translation either. Our meager understanding of ‘patience’ has to do with slowing down for the even slower person ahead of you at the checkout line at the store. Or when your computer doesn’t work and you take a breath and choose not to smash it in frustration. But that's not what Paul is saying about patient love at all. When translating his word for patience we really ought to go back to something like the King James Version: “Charity suffereth long.” Suffereth long. That’s what this word is all about. Suffering long on behalf of the other. Suffering long has to do with being inconvenienced or pained or challenged by the ways of others and enduring with them over the long haul. Suffering long on their behalf or for their good even when they are not working for your good, or you’ve been with them for a long, long time without seeing any signs of change that you might wish for. Love suffers long. And love shows kindness….
Meditating on those words I realized that Paul is describing God’s character. As I sat before the Lord in the text it became apparent that the first part–Love suffers long–is the passive side of love, the other side–love shows kindness–is the active side of love. Both are inextricably woven together in God’s character manifested toward me and you and the whole world in Jesus. As I beheld the goodness of God suffering long and his enacted kindness I wept for a long time before I could get back to work…Praise be to God he suffers long even when we think his endurance could last no longer, because this is who God–Love–is and what God–Love–does…this is what God is like. God is love.
