The Basic Tenet of Love

Seems the club song got it right. At least as far as the appeal to the most fundamental aspect of Love is concerned; first, do no harm. Perhaps you know the chorus …

“What is love. Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me – no more.”

Have you ever been in the kind of lets say incongruent situation where someone who claims to love you, consistently does things that are harmful to you? Ultimately I’d imagine, you’d end up not feeling loved. What would the value of the hippocratic oath be if physicians routinely disregarded taking the requisite care not to harm their patients, event as they attempted to administer life-saving, or aspired to Nobel Laureate worthy cures. That kind of approach would be reckless, neglecting the kind of fundamental care that ensures safety and peace of mind, and well-being. It would be foolhardy and dangerous.

Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:10.

Wow – doing no harm to our neighbor – is that all? So as long as I don’t breach the fence and hall off and punch my neighbor in the eye – I’m good? Uhhh no – –  I think there’s more to it than that. Generally speaking, I think it has a lot to do with caring enough about our neighbor to understand what  would be harmful to him.  We can assume and account for obvious temporal stuff like – we don’t play loud music that disturbs him in the wee hours of the morning; we don’t throw garbage on his lawn; or let our dog relieve himself in his flower bed; we don’t steal his Publisher’s Clearinghouse subscription just because the mailperson delivered it to the wrong address. Doing such things would not be very loving. They would certainly make us undesirable neighbors, and would certainly displease The Father, but we’re actually called to a level of understanding about what’s  required to care for our neighbors  in a way that transcends the avoidance of misdeeds – a much more ultimate eternal kind of caring …

It begins with understanding that loving The Father with all our heart soul and mind – obeying Him is actually the most effective way to care for our neighbors and avoid harming them. The thing is that believe it or not, we are capable of quite unintentionally harming our neighbors in ways we aren’t even capable of discerning; that we can’t see with the naked eye; at times not even having the mind of Christ, or the gift of discernment make it obvious. This is the realm where God’s supernatural sovereignty, omniscience, and omnipresence reigns.

When we’re intent on pleasing Him, we position ourselves along with the powers of Heaven for The Father to reign down blessings untold upon our neighbors (those living within our sphere of influence). This idea may seem esoteric and hard to grasp b/c we’re convinced that love is directly demonstrative toward its intended target, in ways that must be visible or obvious to us, and to a large extent that’s true. Love is an action word, so it must be expressed in deeds that benefit another.  But our direct conference or active expression of love to another is not the entirety of the truth – it’s not full breadth and depth of the principle. It’s only part of it. Our first, and most essential step in fulfilling the most basic tenant of the call to love another person, is to first desire to understand and express what loving The Father looks like, in all its expressions – including the practicality of avoiding things that we know are harmful to others, being willing to understand them and learn what blesses or harms them, and then extending ourselves in ways we believe will bless them.

So yes love even at its most basic level requires something of us – an investment far beyond contentment with not giving the guy a black eye.

Image by Kelly Sikkema