We really don't understand it. But as God gives me light...
God's love sees nothing in us, that He should choose us. Remember, we are dead, depraved, enemies of God, in fact, God-haters before we become Christians. What good is there for God to see in us? And He doesn't see potential good either, that He chooses us.
We just can't comprehend love without need. At the basis of all human love, that is what you always find: desire. longing. hunger. need in some form. But "He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything" (Acts 17:15) God's love is not based on anything in us (not that there is anything to see!). It is based on pure, unadulturated choice. Yet that choice is a choice to lavish us with the deepest, richest love imaginable! It is not a choice in a vacuum, an impersonal dice game of who gets loved. Although God chooses us based not on our merit, but on His, yet He loves us passionately and individually. How can this be? I don't know... it is quite difficult to express the inexpressible-to know the unknowable-yet we can! Praise Him!
What do you think?)
3 comments:
Cara,
This may be a dumb question, but how did you come to the conclusion that God doesn't see potential good in us? I can't think of anything that would support the idea that God doesn't/chooses not to see potential good that we could do. Non-Christians seem to be able to do good without the help of God.* Or are you a good vs evil thing where you are either sinful (evil) or sinless (good) and therefore can deal in absolutes?
Thanks
*Now I will admit that this is taking a rather arrogant stance supposing that a human could do anything without God.
Good thoughts--makes me think. =)
Indeed, 'tis a mystery to us--how? why? can God love us?--but a marvelous mystery, one which must but leave us speechless with wonder. Yet God shows us this mystery; He shows us His love. Praise Him for grace undeserved!
It could be most definitely be argued that the basis of all human love is need; even the most sacrificial love has a desire for the other person to be fulfilled, in other words, the other's desires become their own. If you consider each type of love(secularly defined, at least)--eros, ludos, pragma, agape, storge(Greek, in a word each type of love is respectively: physical, novel, practical, sacrificial, friendship), each contains a certain desire or need.
On the counter hand, it could be argued that desire and need are separate things. Need is more of requirement that must be fulfilled by action, whereas desire is a purpose that is to be accomplished, for whatever reason. This is rather difficult to explain clearly what I mean, so I beg understanding.
For example: if a melancholy man is walking to a store to get food due to his hunger, he has a need for food. To attain satisfaction of the requirement(being fed) he fulfills it by action(buying food at the store). Now say this man had just spent the entire day helping at a hospital. As he goes to get his food from the store, he espies a homeless man sleeping out on a bench near the store. Having already "fulfilled" any need he might have had for helping, he has no "need"(i.e. inner desires or longings or requirements) to help this man. Yet seeing the poor estate the homeless man is in, he "desires"(i.e. purposes) to help him, and thus goes and buys this man lunch. In both circumstances(hospital and store) he showed love. In the hospital it may have been out of a need(inner longing, requirement, etc.) that he loved. Yet in the case of the homeless man, there was no "need" to be fulfilled--he desired(purposed) to show love, and thus did.
Now I realize that is a flawed example, but hopefully it made some sense. =) Now in the case of man, there may always be some underlying need to love, but perhaps God "desires"(purposes) to show us love. You see, for us, the term "desire" means we have an inner longing that must be fulfilled(i.e. a need). Using the example of the man who had already spent the entire day helping at a hospital, though, consider that God has already done more than He ever would be required to do for us(pardon the limitations of speech, it is not like God is required to do anything). Yet against all "need" he desires(purposes) to love us.
Well--I just looked back at your post and realized I kinda said a lot of the same thing....eheheh. =) And since your point was just for man, anyway....perhaps, though, it is possible for man that desire may be the basis of love, rather than need?
Just some thoughts....(please tell me if I misstated anything or if there are any questions) =)
Jesse--I'll answer your question next. =) (hopefully I'll have the time ^_^)
--Josiah C.
Josiah: here were my definitions per 'need' and 'desire':
need: requirement for life or health, ie a baby love/needs its mom, or children's love for their parents (or even spousal love) could be partially dependent on the filling of need
desire: longing, passion ~ need for happiness. Like a lover 'I can't be happy without you' or a parent or sibling, even 'I can't be happy unless you're good to me (or not bad to me :-))'
Jesse: good question~ thanks for asking (there are no dumb questions! this one especially-I needed to think about it! :-)). God's love for us can't be based on potential good in us because any potential good in us is based on His love for us. It's not an attribute of ourselves at all, but of His working in us. Does that make sense? (I'm not sure it would to me, but I'm struggling to explain it...)
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