Something has been bugging me ever since I became a Christian. It is the idea that as a Christian, I am supposed to be "falling in love" with Jesus. If I am being honest with myself this idea makes me EXTREMELY uncomfortable. There is something off-putting about the very notion of "falling in love" with the Lord of Glory, yet this idea is ubiquitous in modern evangelical worship, both musical and otherwise. I guess my problems are as follows:
Firstly, "falling in love" is a phrase that by its very nature stirs up high levels of emotion. That is not in and of itself bad, but the problem is that emotions are subjective by nature. They are experienced differently, by different people. Personally, I "fell in love" multiple times before I met my wife. I felt intense emotional connections that at the time I could only describe as love. As a Christian, who now has a Biblical worldview, I realize that what I felt was intense lust for those women, not love.
In order for the idea of falling in love to be useful in worship, it needs to be defined Biblically, not emotionally. As I write this, I am watching the Catfish MTV show, where the subject is claiming to have fallen in love with someone she has never met, yet has regular phone sex with. Is this love? Certainly not. Yet this is how the phrase is used in the world today. When it is said that we need to" fall in love" with Jesus, it is almost never qualified Biblically. In my opinion this is not only not helpful, it could actually be harmful to the saints.
This leads me to my second, and far more important concern. Is this idea even Biblical? If it isn't, then where does it come from, and why is it so common in worship today? I am completely comfortable with the idea of loving God. But again, love must be defined Biblically to have any meaning at all. I believe love is very clearly defined in the Bible in 1 Corinthians and elsewhere. None of that has anything to do with the vague concept of "falling in love", prevalent in today's culture.
At this point I must point out that I am aware of the metaphor used in Scripture of the Church being the bride of Christ. But I am not sure this necessarily has anything to do with the modern exhortation for individual Christians to "fall in love" with Jesus. Furthermore, I am not an expert on the institution of marriage as it was practiced in the time of the Apostles, but I am not convinced "falling in love" with her husband was the determining factor of whether or not the woman married him. It's very likely that the metaphor of the Church as the bride, meant something very different to the initial audience of the Scriptures than it would to our modern sensibilities.
The greatest commandment, according to Jesus, our Mighty God, King of kings, and Lord of lords, is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. This is indisputable truth. But is that love, which is commanded by Jesus in Matthew 22, akin to "falling in love" as defined by today's culture? If not, isn't it about time that we stop talking about it like it is?
I am honestly posing these as questions. (Excuse me for channeling my inner Rob Bell's "I'm just asking questions" style.) Personally the use of the phrase "falling in love" pertaining to Christ is uncomfortable based on what I know about Him through the Bible. I readily admit I may be missing something Scripturaly here. I would welcome any thoughts or comments anyone may have on this issue.
Your main point about falling in love is spot on and a much needed comment. You also made it crystal clear that the Bible talks about loving God and others as fulfilling our duty as believers, which are direct commands of God in which Jesus perfectly modeled and fulfilled basically.
ReplyDeleteI think we Americans these days use this term to make the gospel more pallet able to our generation. We play off the whole emotional thing, and use language young people can 'understand'. Which to me is called lowering the bar. Some may even call this contextualization unfortunately. But from a biblical point of view, this is not even remotely close to the way the Apostles (and all the Bible) used language regarding love and marriage. It's really deceptive, because you can't assume the modern person will have an understanding of a first century Jew. We think in terms of romantic fantasy, lust, self-centered, and so forth..trust me I know from my past.
When Paul talks about love, and the Bride of Christ and draws marriage metaphors.. this is rooted in covenant. God created the covenant of marriage to be a picture of the believers spiritual union with Christ. The 1st century Jewish context of the marriage relationship is one of obligation, duty, faithfulness, gender responsibilities, and so forth. TOTALLY DIFFERENT than what people understand of marriage when we use this 'falling in love' language we go astray big time.
It is just as easy to fall out of love as it is to falling love. When life disappoints us it's easy to blame God and turn our backs on Him- if we have a shallow understanding of what it means to be a disciple, and are not born again. But the good news is that according to the Bible-there is no falling out of love with Christ once we are united to Him through the faith bond. That's a real picture of marriage, which symbolized the eternal covenant faithfulness of God. Love you man.