Working backwards then, when coming to the words of Jesus
there is an almost automatic presumption that what Jesus means when He commands
His disciples to love one another accords neatly with pre-constructed opinions
about the nature of love. However, it behooves the reader to approach
these words of Jesus apart from his or her own terms. These words of
Jesus are not to be approached based upon what is believed to be Jesus’ terms
(defined self-referentially through subjective ideas concerning love), as
outlined by the portraits painted by the authors of the synoptic Gospels
(Matthew, Mark, and Luke), or by the path laid out by New Testament authors
such as Paul, Peter, James, Jude, the author of the letter to the Hebrews, or
John the Revelator. Rather, one must approach these words of Jesus and
attempt to understand their full import according to the terms that are
presented by the author of this particular Gospel.
Thus, it is necessary to hear the witness of the Johannine
community concerning love, doing so through the Gospel and the Epistles that
bear the same name. Jesus’ words must be heard from within the narrative
construct and presentation of Jesus that is offered by this author as He seeks
to present a specific picture of Jesus. Love must be allowed to be
defined on John’s terms. When this is
done, the reader is them positioned as a disciple that is ready to adequately
respond to Jesus’ command to love one another and so be identified as a member
of the people who have thrown their lot in with Him.
If one is going to
attempt to come to grips with the concept of Christian love, then the New
Testament’s Johannine compilation is a reasonable place to turn. If one
is looking to ascertain the conception of love, and to do so on the terms of a
particular New Testament author, while considering the topic as vital to
Christian living, then the collection of “John” writings should be the
preferred destination.
In the Gospel of
John, a term that is translated as “love” is employed twenty times.
“Loved” appears twenty-one times. Adding the epistles of John, one finds
“love” used an additional twenty-eight times (twenty-three for 1 John, three in
2 John, and two in 3 John). The epistles employ “loved” three times, with
all three appearances in the first letter of John. In total, “love” or
“loved” is employed a total of seventy-two times in the Johannine corpus.
This is unsurprising, as the author refers to himself in terms of love. He
is known self-referentially as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.”
By way of comparison,
a quick glance through the synoptic Gospels provides a total of twenty-five
variations on “love” (love-22, loved-2, loving-1). Surprisingly, while it
details the activities of the early church, the Acts of the Apostles contains
no mentions of “love” or any of its variations. The New Testament letters
however, excluding those of John, are well-represented in this area of “love”.
Romans, the letters to Corinth, and the letter to the Ephesians all reach into
the double digits in their employment of the term.
In the sixteen
chapters of Romans, “love” or “loved” appears on fifteen occasions (twelve and
three respectively). The first
Corinthian letter uses love thirteen times (six times in the “love chapter”). The second letter to the Corinthian church
scores twelve uses of “love” and “loved” (eleven and one). The relatively short letter to Ephesus
(though, because it does not contain the types of specifics to be found in
other Pauline letters, and because it doesn’t seem to deal with any particular
vexing issues or pressing matters within a particular church, as it may have
originally been a circular letter designed to be shared by a number of
churches) clocks in with nineteen mentions of “love” or “loved” (fourteen and
five) within its scant six chapters.
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