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:: message from the headmaster spring 2006
As my Christian worldview class rounds third base and heads for home, we are waist-deep in our debate preparation. The resolution this year centers on embodying Christ in the face of postmodern unbelief. Throughout our discussions, I have been reminded of what Francis Schaeffer called the "final apologetic:" love. Love - not defined in post-modern terms such as tolerance or sentimentality - but love as defined and exemplified by the Incarnation. We must learn to love as Christ loved - for He is not only loving, He is love. As one author has said, we need to be a loving church to a dying culture.
Let me suggest just two reasons as to why demonstrating true, biblical love is such a critical issue at this cultural moment.
First, our students are inheriting a culture that speaks much of love but demonstrates just the opposite. In one of his books, Dostoevsky depicts a conversation between two characters who are discussing hell. "Hell," says one of them, "must be the inability to love." And in that sense, as Ravi Zacharias pointed out, all hell has broken loose on our culture; for with all of the talk of love, we witness betrayals and atrocities to our fellow man as those in multiple American high schools can sadly attest. We witness the break up and break down of the family - the very formation center of love and human relationships.
Last year, as our literary journey led us through the musings of the French Enlightenment - and especially that of Voltaire's Candide - we witnessed first hand how far from God's intentions the human sensibilities have strayed. The exercise of such sensibilities were misdirected at best - and often purposely directed toward personal enjoyment and fulfillment apart from any absolute moral base.
But love by definition has nothing to do with self-gratification. Love is the posture of the soul and its attachments are binding. Love is sacrificial - an issue of the will and not merely the emotions and sensibilities. Such a definition of love will take us our entire lives to flesh out. But then again, we have a teacher who is love personified. As Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica regarding love, "You have no need for someone to write to you, for you, yourselves are taught by God to love."
But then there is a second reason why love was the great seal that Christ placed upon His redemptive work - why love is such a superlative testimony - and that is the issue of authenticity. As Schaeffer pointed out, if we are to expect the non-Christian to believe that God exists and that we really believe what we profess to be true - then we must wear the mark. Love is the clear, objective standard of truth.
In our consistent demonstration of love, even in very taxing situations, others will see something of a crucified love. That kind of love demonstrates something authentic and genuine. Show that to the world, and perhaps as Dorothy Sayers has said, "the world might see something worth believing in."
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