POWERFUL LOVE (39 OF 52)
Scripture: 2 Samuel 13:6-15
This content is part of a series.
Powerful Love (39 of 52)
Series: Discipleship Part Two
Christopher B. Harbin
2 Samuel 13:6-15
We talk a lot about love. The radio broadcasts songs day in and day out that attempt to describe and portray love. Our entertainment venues can't seem to offer anything that does not contain at least some aspect of a love story. The angst of teen romance seems the basis for most of these caricatures of love portrayed, and yet it is but one slice of love and a poor understanding of it at that. Under this barrage of messages about and descriptions of love, we may often find ourselves misunderstanding the character of love, exchanging it for some lesser category.
Traditionally, we have spoken of distinctions in the understanding of love as expressed in the Greek language, especially as characterizing Jesus' teaching. Our religious literature has often tried to capture distinctions in the Greek as though originating from Jesus, but Jesus did not speak Greek. While the gospels were written in Greek, they do not quite make the hard and fast distinctions we would like to see between terms for erotic, brotherly, and sacrificial love we have often attempted to describe. We often remain at a loss because the Scriptures before us simply do not always use the terms we would like them to use, nor distinguish nuances of meaning as categorically as we would like.
Today's text in 1st Samuel is one of those instances. The text begins speaking of Amnon's love for his half-sister. We should probably consider the appropriate term here to be infatuation. Amnon did not love Tamar. He was infatuated with her. He was turned on by her. He could not get her out of his mind, but he did not really love her. He was simply obsessed with her as the object of his desire. The text tells us that once he had had his way with her, he cast her out of his presence, hating her with the same intensity of his erstwhile ''love''.
Unfortunately, Amnon's relationship with Tamar fits the category of ...
Series: Discipleship Part Two
Christopher B. Harbin
2 Samuel 13:6-15
We talk a lot about love. The radio broadcasts songs day in and day out that attempt to describe and portray love. Our entertainment venues can't seem to offer anything that does not contain at least some aspect of a love story. The angst of teen romance seems the basis for most of these caricatures of love portrayed, and yet it is but one slice of love and a poor understanding of it at that. Under this barrage of messages about and descriptions of love, we may often find ourselves misunderstanding the character of love, exchanging it for some lesser category.
Traditionally, we have spoken of distinctions in the understanding of love as expressed in the Greek language, especially as characterizing Jesus' teaching. Our religious literature has often tried to capture distinctions in the Greek as though originating from Jesus, but Jesus did not speak Greek. While the gospels were written in Greek, they do not quite make the hard and fast distinctions we would like to see between terms for erotic, brotherly, and sacrificial love we have often attempted to describe. We often remain at a loss because the Scriptures before us simply do not always use the terms we would like them to use, nor distinguish nuances of meaning as categorically as we would like.
Today's text in 1st Samuel is one of those instances. The text begins speaking of Amnon's love for his half-sister. We should probably consider the appropriate term here to be infatuation. Amnon did not love Tamar. He was infatuated with her. He was turned on by her. He could not get her out of his mind, but he did not really love her. He was simply obsessed with her as the object of his desire. The text tells us that once he had had his way with her, he cast her out of his presence, hating her with the same intensity of his erstwhile ''love''.
Unfortunately, Amnon's relationship with Tamar fits the category of ...
There are 7681 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
