John Chrysostom said that no human word can depict true Christian love in its true worth. After all, it has not earthly origin, but heavenly. Holy angels also cannot perfectly investigate such love, since it comes from the mind of the Lord.
Definition
Christian love is not just an ordinary feeling. It represents life itself, permeated by noble deeds pleasing to God. This phenomenon is a manifestation of the highest goodwill towards every creature of God. A person who is inherent in this type of love is able to demonstrate this benevolence at the level of both external behavior and concrete deeds. Christian love for one's neighbor is, first of all, actions, not empty words.
For example, Ignatius Brianchaninov strictly warns: if a person believes that he loves the Almighty, but in reality, his soul has an unpleasant disposition towards at least someone, then he is in a very sad self-deception. There is no question of the presence of grace. Now we can say that Christian love is a synonym for benevolence or mercy. John Chrysostom also speaks of its importance: "If all mercy on earth is destroyed, then all living things will perish and be destroyed." Indeed, if the remnants of mercy on our planet are destroyed, then humanity will destroy itself through war and hatred.
The original meaning of the word
Of interest is the early meaning that filled the Christian word "love." In those days when the New Testament was written, the word "love" was indicated by different words. These are “Storge”, “Fileo”, “Eros” and “Agape”. These words were designations for four types of love. The word "eros" was translated as "physical love." "Storge" means the love of parents for children or love between relatives. "Fileo" was used to denote tender feelings between a young man and a girl. But as the Christian word "love" was used only "agape". It is used to describe God's love. This love, which has no boundaries, which is capable of sacrificing itself for the sake of the person whom it values.
God's love for man
If a person loves sincerely, he cannot be hurt or belittled by the fact that he is not reciprocated. After all, he loves not in order to get something in return. This love is incomparably higher than the rest of the types.
The Lord loved people so much that He sacrificed Himself. It was love that prompted Christ to give his life for people. Christian love for one's neighbor is expressed in being ready to give their lives for brothers and sisters. If a person loves his neighbors, but does not receive reciprocity, this cannot hurt him or offend. Their response has absolutely no meaning, and it cannot quench agape love. The meaning of Christian love is self-sacrifice, renunciation of one’s interests. Agape is a powerful force that manifests itself in action. This is not an empty feeling that is expressed only in words.
Unlike romantic love
The supreme love that comes from God does not at all constitute a romantic experience or love. Moreover, we are not talking about sex drive. In the true sense, the word love can only be called Christian love. She is a reflection of the divine in people. At the same time, the Holy Fathers write that the romantic feeling, just like sex drive, is not alien to human nature. After all, initially the Lord created man as one. But the fall led to the fact that human nature underwent distortion, perversion. And once a single nature broke up into separately acting components - this is the mind, heart and body.
Some Christian scholars have suggested that until then, Christian love, romantic, and the realm of physical intimacy were features of the same love. However, in order to describe a person damaged by sin, it is necessary to separate these terms. In a Christian marriage, God's harmony is present - in it there is spiritual, emotional and physical.
Agape in the family
Christian love allows you to cultivate a true responsibility, as well as a sense of duty. Only with these qualities, it is possible to overcome many difficulties in relationships between people. The family is an environment in which the personality can fully manifest itself both in the positive sense and in the negative. Therefore, Christian love as the basis of family life is not just a feeling for an illusory person, the image of which, even before marriage, creates the imagination or the partner himself (using all kinds of acting talents).
The highest feeling, love-agape, allows you to accept another in his true guise. The family is such an organism in which those individuals who were originally alien to each other should ultimately become one. Love in the Christian sense is inherently the opposite of the conventional wisdom about the existence of "soul mates." On the contrary, in a Christian marriage, people are not afraid to face their own flaws and forgive the flaws of another. Ultimately, this leads to true understanding.
An everyday feat of family life
A sacrament in which God Himself blesses a man and a woman is usually called a wedding. It should be noted that the words "wedding" and "crown" are cognate. But then what crowns are we talking about? Holy Fathers emphasize: on the crowns of the martyrs. The requirements of the Lord regarding family responsibilities (for example, a ban on divorce) seemed so severe to the apostles that some of them exclaimed in their hearts: if the duties of a person towards his spouse are so strict, then it’s better not to marry at all. However, Christian experience shows that true joy can bring not simple things, but those for which it is worth working hard.
Temporality of worldly sentiment
Ordinary worldly love is extremely transient. As soon as a person abandons the ideal that was created in his head before marriage or even the beginning of a relationship, this love will turn into hatred and contempt. This feeling has a carnal, human nature. It can quickly and quickly turn into its opposite. In recent decades, people often diverge due to the fact that they "did not agree on the characters." Behind these ordinary, seemingly words, there is an elementary inability to solve difficulties that inevitably arise in any relationship. In fact, worldly people can neither forgive, nor sacrifice, nor speak with another person. Love is a Christian virtue that requires all of this from man. And to forgive or sacrifice something in practice is extremely difficult.
Bible examples
The human mind, which is essentially impassive, is opposed to the heart. All sorts of passions boil in it (not only in the sense of sin, but also in the form of emotions, violent feelings). Romantic love is the sphere that affects the heart itself. And this God-given feeling turned out to be subject to all kinds of distortions. In the Bible, for example, the feeling between Zechariah and Elizabeth is filled with sincerity and selflessness. They can be an example of Christian love. The relationship of Samson and Delilah is saturated with cunning, manipulation. The second option has been very common recently. Many people now feel deeply miserable. They can’t arrange their personal life or at least build any long-lasting relationship. Moreover, they endlessly fall in love, but their condition is akin to the disease.
The true face of selfishness
In Orthodoxy, this disease is well known. It is called pride, and its consequence is hyperbolic egoism. When a person only does what awaits attention to his person, he will constantly demand satisfaction from the other. He will always be few. And in the end, he will turn into a Pushkin old woman with a broken trough. Similar people who are unfamiliar with Christian love are not internally free. They have no source of light and kindness.
The foundation of Christianity
Love is the foundation of Christian life. Everyday life of every follower of Christ is filled with this great gift. About Christian love, the apostle John the Theologian writes:
Beloved ones! we will love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, because God is love. The love of God for us was revealed in the fact that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we could receive life through Him. It is love that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Such love is a gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the gift without which neither Christian life nor faith is possible. Divine love allows you to create the Church as a single existence of human souls in the image of the Inseparable Trinity. The Church, the Holy Fathers write, is an image of the Trinity. The gift of God's love allows us to create the inner side of the Church as the mystical Body of Christ. Much has been said about Christian love. Summarizing, we can say: it is the basis of life not only of a Christian. As a spiritual being, love is also the soul of the life of all things. Without love, the mind is dead, and even righteousness inspires fear. True Christian righteousness is grace. Compassion, mercy, and true love permeate all the acts of Christ, from His Incarnation to the death of the Cross.
Mercy
Love as the basis of morality in Christian ethics is a driving force that controls all human actions. The follower of Christ is guided in his affairs by mercy and morality. His deeds are dictated by a higher feeling, and therefore they cannot contradict the biblical canons of morality. Fertile love makes people accomplices of God's love. If ordinary feeling is addressed only to those who cause sympathy, then God's love allows us to be merciful and unbearable to people. Every person needs this feeling. However, not everyone can or wants to take it.
Phenomenon integrity
Mercy in itself does not negate other natural types of love. They can even bear good fruit - but only if they are based on the basis of Christian love. Any manifestation of an ordinary feeling in which there is no sin can turn into a manifestation of a gift or need. As for mercy, it is the most secret work. A person should not intentionally notice and emphasize it. The Holy Fathers say: it is good when a parent begins to play with a child who has disobeyed before. This will show the child that he was forgiven. But true mercy allows you to adjust the soul in such a way that a person voluntarily wants to start the game.
It is necessary to develop charity in itself, which is inherent in need. Indeed, in every person there is always an unbearably disgusting feature. And if a person gets the impression that on earth you can live without Christian love, which is mercy, then this means that he has not yet joined the Christian way of life.
Domestic theologian K. Silchenkov examined in detail the basic commandment of Christianity. It can be considered as one of the universal ethical models. Christ gave people a new commandment, and also explained its novelty, showing His disciples an example of true love. It is this highest example that speaks not only of the commandment as such, but also of the moral ideal.
Love, according to the teachings of the apostle Paul, is a union of perfection. It represents the main of virtues, and is also an indicator of belonging to the followers of Christ. Violation of the law of love is the outbreak of war, quarrels and conflicts, insincerity.
Where does agape originate
In mutual love, Christians received from their Master a sign of belonging to the new Kingdom. It is impossible to touch him with his hands, but he cries out loudly for an inner feeling. Moreover, Christian love for each other is only the first and necessary condition for love for all people.
In mutual love for each other, Christians should draw strength for mercy in relation to other people, in the outside world, where love is already a more complex and unusual matter.
Like any feeling in a person, Christian love for its comprehensive development requires appropriate favorable conditions, a special environment. A society of faithful, in which relationships are built on love, and represents such an environment. Being in such a life-giving environment, a person gets the opportunity not to be limited to fraternal love. He learns to give it to everyone to whom she may relate - such is Christian love. This topic is very extensive and multifaceted. But “agape” begins precisely with everyday life, with the most mundane manifestations of mercy.
Philosophical Studies
Max Scheler examined in detail the concept of the highest divine love, in contrast to the concept of it in various worldview systems developed by the beginning of the 20th century. As for Christian love, it is distinguished by activity. It begins at the point where the requirements for restoring justice at the level of current legislation end. Many modern thinkers share the view that complacency becomes redundant as more and more legitimate claims arise.
However, this view is contrary to the beliefs of Christian morality. This is clearly illustrated by the cases of transfer of the guardianship of the poor from the competence of the church to state structures. Such cases have also been described by Scheler. Such actions are not related to the idea of sacrifice, Christian compassion.
Such views ignore the fact that Christian love always appeals to that part of a person that is directly connected with the spiritual, with participation in the Kingdom of Heaven. Such views led to the fact that the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche decided to identify the Christian idea of love with an absolutely different idea from it.