Dear Theophilus, 

In this ,letter I would like to discuss with you something that has come up in many letters but still needs to be looked at to understand what it means. What I am referring to is love. This is a word that everyone would say they understand and this points to the fact that the word has taken on many meanings. And this is sometimes a problem - when we talk about love, we may be talking about something quite different from what someone else means.

When we use the term love theologically, we mean something quite specific. We do not mean those nice, warm feelings that are often identified with love. What we mean by love is something which is fundamental to existence, to the very fabric of the universe. This is one of the most important messages of Christianity and it tells us something fundamental about God and about creation.

However, before I get to this topic, I'd like to point out to you that the most fundamental problem of philosophy is the existence of "the other". What this means is that we are in great difficulty to understand what creation means. We find it hard to understand that anything outside God can exist, in a true sense, of being separate from God. This is often referred to as the problem of the other. It is therefore not surprising that a true doctrine of creation exists in very few religions, one of these being Christianity.

We are called in Christianity to love God and to love our neighbor. To love God is sometimes easier for us because He is less intrusive in our lives; it is our neighbor that often gives us great difficulties as we face the irritations our neighbor can bring to us.

It is erroneous, as I pointed out above, to equate love with some kind of feeling of warmth and affection. Theologically, that is not what love means. Love in Christianity is closed tied to the foundational doctrine of Christianity, the creation. Christianity says that the universe, including us, came into being as something separate from God, something which depends on God for existence but something which, at the same time, somehow, has an independent existence. The doctrine of creation in Christianity says "ex nihilo" which is a Latin phrase for "from nothing". This is a very strong view of creation. In some religions you will encounter a weaker form of this teaching. God uses the pre-existent matter and transforms it. This is not what Christianity teaches. God truly creates something new, something different from Himself. This seems impossible to us because we cannot imagine it, but we really have no grounds to limit God in terms of what He can and what He cannot do. The doctrine of creatio ex nihilo is at the very heart of theology and lays the foundation for pain, suffering, redemption and eternal life. This is a truly fundamental teaching and is the linchpin around which much of Christian theology (and Jewish theology) is organized.

We are told by the Apostle John that God is love. We have heard this statement so often that we have lost the sense of its audacity. This was truly something revolutionary in man's idea of the divine. The most prevalent view in religions was that man is of little account in matters which are truly important in the universe. Along comes Christianity and says that the essence of God is love; and that each human being has an inestimable value; this was a truly revolutionary statement.

When we hold to the definition of love as some emotion or feeling, we run into problems once we try to link this up with God. It is therefore important for us to be clear about what love means, and as was touched on above, the answer to what love is lies in the doctrine of creation. God loves because He creates and He creates because He loves. Creation and love are the two sides of the same coin. And this gives us a clear guidance as to what we are to do when we are called on to love God and to love our neighbor.

The important component of what it means to love someone is to enable them to be and to give them the freedom to be . This is what it means to love someone and it applies to our neighbor and to our relationship with God. Love is primarily an affirmation of the reality of creation - the other, your neighbor, exists and because of this existence, he has value and should be accorded respect. This is not something to be earned; this is something that automatically comes through the fact of this person existing.

Sometimes, we do not take the doctrine of creation seriously enough. We look at matter and we see it decay or people die and this seems to tell us that matter, that what is created is not that important. However, you should notice, in the Old Testament, particularly in the psalms, how often reference is made to creation. In the book of Job, when God answers Job, reference is again made to creation.

What I would like to concentrate on now is: how do we love? What does it mean, in a practical sense, to love someone? What it means is that you affirm the other. You respect them and above all, you afford them freedom to be whoever they wish to be. Once we try to manipulate and to force the other into what we think they should be, we have moved away from a loving position. The essence of love is the good of the other but in such a way that the other is not dominated by us. This is an important aspect of how God treats us. He does not coerce or force us in any way - He permits us to do as we see fit, but He is there if we want to turn to Him. This obviously involves a certain element of risk, but in order for love to exist and flourish, this risk is unavoidable. And it is this risk that opens creation to abuse and pain and evil. We have heard this explanation about the origin of evil so frequently that we have become a little bit jaded. But, it is still the best, most consistent and comprehensive explanation of the presence of evil in creation.

Love is the acceptance of the other person, with all their warts and everything else that they bring along with them. It is caring for the welfare and joy of that person and taking actions that would contribute to this. Love, in other words, is not emotion but action. And we show this action through forgiveness, through charity, through sharing of material wealth, through being present for the other. It does not mean keeping score or tallying the other's actions. This is how God acts with us and this is how we are to act with our neighbors.

It is not easy to love because love challenges our egoism and our self-love. It runs counter to all that which seems natural to us in the fallen condition that we find ourselves. It seems that selfishness comes much more easily to us than love. But if we do not love, in a sense, we put ourselves outside creation and isolate ourselves and another word, for this isolation is death. What it is important to remember, and I cannot overemphasize it, is that love is not kind feelings but loving actions. In order to love, you must interact with others. This is why some have gone so far as to say that our salvation is with our neighbor. It is through our interactions with our neighbor that we are formed and shaped in our very basic being. It is in the crucible of our relationships that we form our eternal destiny.

When we say that love is the basis of the universe this says something important for us. We know that we matter and that we are taken seriously. If someone has gone to the trouble of creating us, then this shows that we have an importance which goes beyond what we often think of ourselves. Tragedies may visit us, but these are not intentional, but the results of that terrible freedom that has been given to creation, and we are given the solemn promise that the wrongs that we presently experience will be cleared away. This is not just pie-in-the-sky; this is a truth that goes to the very core of creation.

There is a poem about love of God that addresses the essence of love of God:

I am not moved, my God, to love you
By the heaven above you have promised me.
Neither does hell, so feared, move me
To keep me from offending you.

You move me, Lord; I am moved seeing you
Scoffed at and nailed on a cross.
I am moved seeing your body so wounded.
Your injuries and your death move me.

It is your love that moves me, and in such a way
That even though there were no heaven,
I would love you,
And even though there were no hell,
I would fear you.

You do not have to give me anything so that I love you,
For, even if I didn't hope for what I hope,
As I love you now, so would I love you.

With this, I end and remain, as always,

Bar-Abbas

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