Reasons to Embrace the Love Story Interpretation of the Bible

Last week I wrote about completing lenses or over-arching stories with which to coherently understand and interpret the Bible, and for that matter, life and God. This week, I wanted to write briefly as to why it makes sense to use the themes of love of God for us and relationship with God as the lens with which to view the story. This pushes an alternative lens of our sin and God’s holiness to the background, without denying either one’s important role in understanding the loving actions God took on our behalf (especially sending Jesus to die on the cross so we might be reconciled to God).

Many of the greatest love stories of all time in literature have this as a theme: the Lover gives up his life or her life for his or her Beloved. Jesus’ love for us was so great that He actually died for us. And that is part of the Greatest Love Story of all time — the story of God pursuing the one He loves — us, His Bride, His Church, His People.

Strong support for the Love Story lens is that at the beginning of time (with humans in the picture), we see God walking in the garden with Adam and Eve, talking intimately with them, sharing freely (Genesis 1 and 2). Then, at the end of time (on the earth), we see the Bride, us, the Church, adorned and ready for marriage to Christ (Revelations 21:1-3). If both the beginning and the end of the story are snapshots of intimacy with God, it seems that the Greater Story, the story to explain the story, must be about relationship with God.

Many types of relationships are used in the Bible to help us understand how to interact with God. In addition to being called a bride, elsewhere we are called children, brothers, and friends. The beginning of the Gospel of John, in which John conveys Jesus’ mission on earth, we are told, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God children” (John 1:12, NIV).

Then there are the very personal invitations that we see in the Bible. In Psalms 27:8, we hear God invite us to seek His face (that means to intimately know Him). In Matthew 11:28-30, we hear Jesus echo the call, saying to all who will listen, “Come to me”, inviting us to learn from Jesus personally by walking closely with him. These invitations remind us of Moses boldly responding to God in Exodus 33, setting up a Tent of Meeting, where he would go to meet with God. And God would come down in a cloud and speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. This preceded Moses’ plea for God’s presence to always go with him and the people of Israel.

In John 10, Jesus uses the analogy of shepherd and sheep in describing his relationship with us, emphasizing in verse 14 that his sheep know his voice (intimacy). In John 14:23, Jesus promises that he and his Father will come and live in anyone who loves them. We are told that the Holy Spirit will live in us (Romans 8:9-10) and will be our Comforter and Counselor who will teach us all things (John 14:26) and who will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). In John 15:4-5, Jesus reminds us that the only way to succeed in this life is if we live intimately connected with him. He promises that if we do that, he will also live intimately connected to us.

Perhaps most importantly, when the Beloved disciple, John, toward the end of his life was describing God, he told believers that “God is love” (1 John 4:8 and 16). While God has an attribute of being holy, he is not defined as holy, he is defined as love.
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If you learn to read the Bible with the love lens, you grow to have a softer heart and a deeper passion. It is easier to grow near to and trust the One Who is Love, than the one who is foremost defined as holy, and therefore infuse with anger and releasing wrath.

Come close to God… It is the desire of His heart, and whether you recognize it or not, the deepest desire of your heart, too.

Discussion questions:

1) Do you find it difficult to be around angry people? What is it about anger that keeps you from drawing close?

2) Do you find that you more easily love a person when they love you? What causes that response?

Preceding article on choosing a lens by which to read the Bible.

2 Replies to “Reasons to Embrace the Love Story Interpretation of the Bible”

  1. Thak you this article. I find it difficult to be close to angry people. I usually ignore or stay ten feet away from them. Yes, a loving person is more easy to love. I try to teach my son not to vend his irritation towards people and that being in a bad mood does not excuse one from coming out with spikes. Sometimes it is not easy to extend grace towards people who are in a bad mood almost all the time. What can man do when people are not angry but irritated because others did not perform as expected. This is not easy. I need to grace of God to relate to “challenging” people. Thank you for the article. This pointed a sore part inside my heart. I have to be more forgiving. Sometimes I find it hard to balance between giving grace and not letting yourself be stepped on. Turning the other cheek is not that easy.

    1. Thanks for such a good and honest comment! Like you, I find it hard to be around angry people, especially those that have a tendency to want to hurt others when they are angry. You brought up a good point about Jesus in Matthew 5:38-41, in which he is teaching us not to take revenge but to respond in a different way to hurtful things done to us. What a challenging teaching! I think you’re right that sometimes the most loving thing to do to a person is to draw the line on their bad behavior so that they can learn and grow. I think whenever you do the most loving thing you can think of in response to bad behavior, you have lived in accordance with Jesus’ teaching.

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