civic
Well-known member
A friend of mine made these astute comments below.
It doesn't come from any explicit teaching of Scripture. It's drawn from reflection on our own subjective human experience of love. This is not an invalid way of discerning what "love" looks like; Jesus appeals to our own intuition regarding this when He says "What father is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"
Notice that He invites us to reflect on our own subjective intuition regarding what love looks like, and to then project that onto God. Notice also that Jesus gives credit to our sense of what love looks like while assuming that we are nevertheless evil. This suggests that no matter how evil we may become, our sense of what love looks like remains intuitive to us (even though we may suppress it).
Now let's apply this to free will. If you are married, would you feel that your wife's love is genuine if you knew that she had a sophisticated microchip in her brain that you invented which was directing her every thought and action towards you? Isn't the knowledge that you have no direct control over her will a source of pleasure for you when she does act and speak lovingly? Why is this? And don't you think God might crave the same pleasure that comes from such love?
It doesn't come from any explicit teaching of Scripture. It's drawn from reflection on our own subjective human experience of love. This is not an invalid way of discerning what "love" looks like; Jesus appeals to our own intuition regarding this when He says "What father is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"
Notice that He invites us to reflect on our own subjective intuition regarding what love looks like, and to then project that onto God. Notice also that Jesus gives credit to our sense of what love looks like while assuming that we are nevertheless evil. This suggests that no matter how evil we may become, our sense of what love looks like remains intuitive to us (even though we may suppress it).
Now let's apply this to free will. If you are married, would you feel that your wife's love is genuine if you knew that she had a sophisticated microchip in her brain that you invented which was directing her every thought and action towards you? Isn't the knowledge that you have no direct control over her will a source of pleasure for you when she does act and speak lovingly? Why is this? And don't you think God might crave the same pleasure that comes from such love?
