Love: The Simplicity Beyond Complexity

an article I wrote for the local paper

When I was a child, faith was simple. We sang songs with lyrics like “Jesus loves me, this I know” and “In my Bible book it says that God loves me.” And this was enough. There were no thoughts about the complex questions grown-ups talk about. There was no robust theology. It was just God, love, and me.

As I got older, the world demanded a more complex faith: a faith that memorized passages for the purpose of winning arguments, a faith that knew the positions of my religious opponents as well as how to argue against them, and a faith that knew how to form syllogisms and recite proofs for the existence of God.

The more I dove into these questions, the more I read, studied, learned, and grew. But this complexity brought more questions, questions that didn’t always have easy answers from those around me, and these unanswered questions brought about perplexity, as my friend Brian McLaren teaches. This perplexity begat cynicism and shades of doubt. I saw myself as Festus saw Paul: “Your great learning is driving you mad” (Acts 26:24, NASB95).

Have you ever rewatched a movie and picked up on details you never saw in previous viewings? Maybe you noticed clever foreshadowing, or perhaps you picked up on clues in a mystery that pointed to the culprit early on into the show. The same is true for Scripture. While our familiarity with some passages may contribute to us missing deeper meanings in the text, there are ways to prepare our spirit, heart, and mind to be open to new insights in even the most familiar of texts.

This happened to me when I read 1 Corinthians 8:1-3: “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him” (1 Corinthians 8:1–3).

What was my motivation behind all of that reading and studying and questioning? It was so that I could one day say, “I have it figured out.” This was not a pursuit of knowledge out of love; it was another form of idolatry. It was as if I thought that Paul’s comments on knowledge and “the perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 could be realized through vigorous study.

No wonder I was perplexed! I thought seeing God “face to face” and “knowing God” had something to do with my ability to think, reason, and come up with clever answers to the most profound questions. Instead, the answer to all of my questions was found in those lyrics I memorized before I could read: “Jesus loves me, this I know” and “love one another, for love is of God” and “in my Bible book it says that God loves me” and “Jesus loves the little children.”

What Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 is astounding: “if anyone loves God, he is known by him.” I was faced with a choice. Would I rather know facts about God or be known by God through love?

Love is where I started, and love is where I ended up. Love is the simplicity beyond complexity.

Today, my library is bigger than ever. I’m even pursuing a graduate degree in theology. But my motivation has totally changed. I am working from the knowledge that I am loved by God, and no amount of learning will change that love. Regardless of where you have been, where you are, or where you are headed, love is the answer.