A Beauty Spawned by Love
Aesthetics is the study of beauty. Philosophy departments at colleges and universities offer courses in the subject. Books have been written. I love the title of one by Immanuel Kant, On the Sublime and Beautiful.
What constitutes beauty? A number of things, I suppose, not least of which is the fruit, and not merely the fact, of beauty. Mere facts reduce the truth to a caricature of definition or a series of axioms, or (in the case of beauty) mere appearance.
The great beauties of Hollywood are cases in point. Many of them were stunning on screen, their beauty lending a charisma of presence to a film. But it is best we only know them on screen. Beauty must be more than the trappings of celluloid.
I encountered something quite remarkable when I was in Russia a number of years ago, a duality of character that is striking. Russian society is very rude and abrasive, but there exists an appreciation for beauty that defies the norm.
Russian music, ballet and poetry are exquisite reminders that, amidst all the brutality of life there is something more, something for which the human heart still yearns and still recognizes and still appreciates.
I see seemingly hardened men softly smile when they encounter my lovely little grand-daughter. Her beauty runs deeper than mere appearance, which becomes quickly obvious. She has humor, charm and even consideration. It shows.
How badly does one want one’s life to be adorned with, or even to be remembered by, beauty? I mean by this true, substantive beauty, not the artificial and shallow kind. The latter kind is to be found at a dime-per-dozen.
People will spend exorbitant sums of money to be surrounded by beautiful objects. Men and women will apply themselves with full vigor to look beautiful. People will travel to far-off places if there is even a whiff of natural beauty.
I came across an enlightening passage concerning the Renaissance artist Lorenzo Ghiberti in Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari. Ghiberti is renowned for his bronze sculptures and church doors in Florence, Italy:
“When he had made the moulds and cast the work in bronze it came out very well, and then with the help of his father, Bartoluccio, he polished it with such patience and love that nothing could have been better executed or finished.”
It was the love with which he invested his labor that produced such an incomparable execution and finish. It is not so much talent or even effort. It is love that makes the difference.
Christians should know this. We who constitute the Church of Jesus Christ are the product of God’s exquisite love. We who have been entrusted with the Gospel have been given the commission of declaring God’s love to a fallen world.
Jesus, after all, made quite clear that He wanted the Church to know the love of God. His great priestly prayer that He offered to the Father on the eve of His arrest and execution culminates with loving desire:
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:25, 26).
It is the prayer of Jesus that we know God’s wonderful and holy love. The world can manufacture smiles and pleasures, but not love; love can only come by way of a free gift from one person to another. God has freely bestowed His love upon us:
“In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will – to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves” (Ephesians 1:4-6).
We are recipients of His love and the fact that His Church exists at all is the product of His love. This is why it is so important that holy and sacrificial love, which is the first-fruit of the Holy Spirit, be the primary and motivating attribute of the Church.
It was the “new” command that Jesus issued and reiterated to His followers: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends … This is my command: Love each other” (John 15:12, 13, and 17).
The Apostle Paul well knew the value of God’s love. He had, prior to his miraculous conversion, hated the Church, but God’s love for him proved stronger. He counseled the church at Thessalonica to love with greater vigor:
“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you …Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Ye we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more” (I Thessalonians 3:12; 4:9, 10).
Love for His people is so important. We know that the love of a Christian named Philemon brought joy and encouragement to Paul as Philemon offered refreshment to the hearts of God’s people (Philemon 7).
This is also why Christians are to love the world. We do not mean the world in the sense of corruption and sinfulness, but in terms of God’s creation. God loved the world and we are meant to love just like Him:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
It is often the case that we as Christians take our stands. We stand for this and we stand against that, but one must inquire as to the motivation. Is the love of Christ our motivating impetus?
We take our stands positively and negatively. We love our country, but do we love America with the love of Jesus? Some of us love America because it is what we have known and because it has given us a pleasant lifestyle. But do we understand that God’s Kingdom transcends (and one day supplants) the United States of America?
Such a notion should change the complexion of our love. Christians now have the responsibility of lovingly laying down our lives for the sake of Christ, knowing also that our sacrifice will be beneficial to our land.
Perhaps we who are citizens of God’s Kingdom need to repent of our sin rather than perpetuate our “self-evident” rights as citizens of the United States. Remember what God said through King Solomon:
“If my people, who are called by my Name, will humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways, pray and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven, then will I forgive their sins, and then will I heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
You see, our love for God will have a direct benefit bestowed upon our land, but our love for America will not inherently or necessarily translate into a love for God or His people and Kingdom.
We take our stand, too, against things. Some stand against war, others against promiscuity and materialism, still others against homosexuality and feminism (and, I trust, chauvinism). Again, what I motivates those negative stands?
It must be the love of Jesus, or we simply communicate hatred and disdain to the very ones to whom Jesus would welcome into His Kingdom. The old truism holds true: Hate the sin but love the sinner.
There exists a marvelous ministry to the sexually-broken called Harvest U.S.A. My friends who oversee it minister to those with whom they lovingly empathize. The power of the Gospel enabled them to overcome everything from transvestitism to pornography to fornication to gay and lesbian lifestyles. They now lovingly come alongside of people struggling with various issues of sexuality.
They embody the Pauline mandate of “Speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15), which is better translated, “Truthing in love,” meaning living truthful lives out of love for Jesus. Love, not antipathy, provides the impetus.
It is the genius of 12-Step programs that individuals may come amongst these groups and know instinctively that they will not be condemned or misused, but will receive the help they need. The Church should offer the same.
We are called to live lives that are a heavenly amalgam of love and truth. Jesus said to the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). He directed rather than condemned her.
But to whatever extent our love goes forth, it must encompass the Church. Christians will be sharing the Kingdom together; we would do well to love one another in the here and now. Our mutual love will help prepare us for our destiny.
I love how Peter puts it: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God” (I Peter 1:22, 23).
I love, too, how John puts it: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:1, 2).
I trust you see the connection. We have been born for a purpose, having been conceived by God outside of time and out of love for us, we are being readied for an eternity of love, one in which likeness will prevail due solely and exclusively to love.
It is disheartening when one comes across professing Christians who disregard the Church. They declare that they love Jesus but not the Church. That is impossible! One may be disappointed but not disregarding of her.
He loves her, warts and failings and all. And He is, like Lorenzo Ghiberti, polishing her with “such patience and love that nothing could have been better executed or finished.” He is working through all of history to prepare us as a Bride for His Son.
The Church is a work in progress, a work that is spawned in love and expressive of a beauty that reflects Jesus Himself. Praise God for heavenly aesthetics!
Bradley E. Lacey
August 27, 2010