Love is not a virtue unique to Christianity.
The Greeks abided matters of love, and so did the Jews, and the Eastern dynasties, and nearly all the civilizations of antiquity found value in it. But nearly all of these “loves” were tempered by legalism, by condition of beauty or kin or goodness, by mutuality of both like kinds and opposites.
Not so the Christian love.
New Testament love, the love of Jesus, is based neither on a quality of attraction nor the potential for reproduction or desire. It is not only for those who heed the law or meet a standard or return the favor; it is for all people. And not only is it for all people, it is deliberate about seeking out those whom all other religious and cultural systems find it hard to love. Christian love is love for the prodigal. Love for enemies. Love for sinners, like us. For while we were unlovable, Christ condescended to us that he might speak and live according to this heavensent creed: Still I love you.
Still. Even though. Despite everything. Regardless. Without condition.
This is Christian love. And so it stoops, ever lower, until it is below all things, and undergirds all things.
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