Chapter 18: Love - How to Really Love Other People

Mark here. Thought I would start this discussion of Miller's thoughts on loving other people with the passage from 1 Corinthians 13 that Miller talks about at the end of chapter 18. I am going to share from The Message, a contemporary restating of the Bible.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumpts, but I don't have love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

After reading this chapter of Miller's book, my attention was grabbed by that last stament - "I'm bankrupt without love." Miller talks about the realization that Christian culture often thinks of love as a commodity, withholding it from those who do not agree with us but lavishing it on those who do. Do you agree with his assessment? How have you experienced this, or is there an occasion where you yourself have used love in this fashion?

Jesus calls us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-44). Miller describes this as pouring love lavishly on those who we see as adversaries rather than withholding love until they change. By doing this, he says that love pulls people "... from the mire and toward healing." Can you do this? How "practical" does this seem to you or to our culture? What in our mindset do we need to change to be able to love our enemies?

Miller talked about being more able to be himself around "the hippies" than around Christians. Can you relate to this struggle? What role does love play in this struggle?

Miller struggled with how to love those who he felt were betraying God without encouraging to live apart from God. His peace came with this realization: "I loved the fact that it wasn't my responsibility to change somebody, that it was God's, that my part was just to communicate love and approval." Is this what we mean by "sharing God's love"? Should this be what we mean?