When I build a house, it is important for me to understand what I am doing and how the structure I am raising will hold up when various tests come.
A person can stand on one leg for a long time, but any pressure from the outside will throw him off balance, and he risks falling. If I stand on two legs, however, I can maintain my balance and resist all kinds of outside forces. Three or four points of support are even better.
Remembering that even if I have faith that can move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing, I decide to make another connection to the Foundation at the next corner of my little house of happiness—a connection called ‘I love.’ However bold and revolutionary this may sound, a structure that combines faith and love will be both strong and beautiful if it is built carefully. So I begin cutting into the Rock at the opposite corner of my structure, seeking to reach its very heart and fasten this new corner to the Solid Foundation with strong bonds of love.
This kind of embedded connection contains a crucial feature called ‘I.’ This is not the ‘self’ against which I must continually struggle—the self that expresses my inborn selfishness. It is the ‘I’ that speaks of my personal participation in building happiness and shows that I take ownership of everything happening in my heart. Without this little ‘I,’ the entire study of love will remain a beautiful theory—interesting to learn, to observe in other people’s lives, and to celebrate in their victories. I may then applaud the achievements of courageous individuals without ever joining them.
In our day, a whole army of believers has arisen that might be called the Worldwide Couch Troops. Its motto is: ‘The greatest building project of the age is calling me; the great and unattainable draws me; the marvelous and beautiful beckons me—but the couch shouts louder than all of them!’ Remaining faithful to these troops requires enormous effort: one must do everything possible to stay on the couch and keep the will from responding to any other call.
If my structure lacks the simple ‘I,’ then ‘love’ sounds vague. It becomes common property and a beautiful phrase that can be printed on a T-shirt or cut out in the shape of a pink heart.
I love. This is the strong corner that connects the rest of the structure to the Chief Cornerstone and holds the entire building securely. In this precious material, the word ‘love’ is like a powerful adhesive. Like water, it flows throughout the form called ‘I,’ fills every open space, seals every crack, and takes the shape intended by the Builder. Then it hardens and remains established forever. Every part of the complex structure that this adhesive reaches is bound together. This Heavenly adhesive will continue to be used to unite everything from which my little house is built.
But the following must be kept in mind. Even if the corner is strong, when a wall is made of straw or dried mud, the adhesive will firmly attach those materials to the main structure, but it will not make them strong enough to withstand various tests. Straw will not become fireproof, and mud will not become waterproof. What is temporary may appear strong and godly, but it will never become eternal or able to withstand testing, no matter how much I may want it to.
Nevertheless, the presence of strong corners in my structure gives me confidence and hope that if I do something incorrectly, the building will not collapse, although it may suffer partial damage and require great expense to repair and restore what has fallen into ruin.
How greatly I need wisdom from above! And how many shattered destinies and broken lives I see among believers who build on the Rock, yet build incorrectly and unreliably with temporary materials—and then the building collapses. People become ill and fall into despair, unable to understand why it all happened or why their house collapsed even though the Rock remained. Then they gather mud and straw again and try to rebuild the ruins somehow while they wait for the Chief Engineer, Who has promised all who believe in Him the gift of Eternal dwellings.
I love. These are two vital components which, when joined together through the Holy Spirit, become one exceptionally strong material. Take me, add love, pour in the early rain of the Holy Spirit, and the result is something amazingly strong. It is like mixing sand, cement, and water. Without love, I am merely sand: I absorb drops of the early rain but retain nothing, and when the fire comes, all the moisture within me evaporates and I become dry and unstable again. Love without me becomes soaked in the rain and hardens, but remains very brittle and unsuitable for building because it cannot withstand structural pressure. Or it may remain a watery paste that any stream can easily wash away and no walls can contain. Without the rain of the Holy Spirit, love and I may be thoroughly mixed and blend into one substance of a single color, yet remain dry. Then every wind of new doctrine will scatter this material across the countryside, and no one will understand what it was, even though it looked beautiful.
What we are studying together can become any one of the components described above and can take any form. But a strong structure requires them to be harmoniously combined in the right proportions. A person can read these lessons while lying on the couch, but this information must become part of his life, and he must ask God to establish it all in his heart through His Holy Spirit. Otherwise, his little house will quickly collapse when the tests come—and they certainly will come, because they are part of God’s plans.
When I know the theory of love, then in a time of testing I can allow my ‘I’ to put that theory into practice by choosing love and asking God to establish me in that choice. The right components then come together properly, and it works. The heart becomes accustomed to loving and can no longer live any other way. And as long as my ‘fish of faith’ is alive, it will always swim against the current.
I love. What happiness this is! Nothing is more beautiful than speaking of love to those you love and seeing how it brings joy to the hearts of those who listen, though at first they may test the sincerity of your motives. But Agape Love is never counterfeit. It has an Eternal Source, from Whom it flows into my life, and it is not afraid to identify itself as love. It is not ashamed to be itself and to give itself to my friends and neighbors, bringing light, joy, hope, and happiness into their lives. Although it binds us with strong bonds of love, it does not deprive us of freedom or make us dependent on one another. Love directs our eyes to Christ, in Whom we become so close and dear to one another that only love can help us remain clear-minded and learn to respect each other’s freedom.
We have already studied some of the qualities of Eternal Love, but it is worth noting that Love reveals Herself in countless ways, and the number of Her definitions never stops growing. We may discover Her thousands and millions of times, and something new will always remain to be discovered at the next stage.
‘I love.’ This is the corner of the little house of happiness that not only holds the entire building together but also illuminates everything within it.
Bible verses for this chapter:
1 Corinthians 3:11–15; 13:2; Revelation 2:4; 1 John 3:1; 4:17; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:13; Colossians 3:14; Galatians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 16:14