As is the case today, not everybody welcomed Jesus. He upset convention, gave a voice to the oppressed and befriended outcasts. You might have thought he could not have made enemies. Yet he did. He told his hearers that they were like children. They followed him and then followed somebody else. They had their favourites and these were different from day to day. It depended on the mood of the children or the weather or the absence of a favourite breakfast perhaps.
We are put in mind of Lovelace’s poem to Lucasta. ‘I could not love thee dear so much, loved I not honour more.’ There are affections, loyalty, purpose that would be questionable but for the fact that he is the kind of man he is. He has an ultimate loyalty to his Maker which elicits constancy. Such a person is not here today and gone tomorrow. He is reliable, trustworthy, always the same.
It is easy to say (and more acceptable) to say that God is love than to make it clear what we mean by the word ‘love’. If love is the summit of the virtues, it could hardly be otherwise. To mean anything at all love has to be unchanging. Prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude were on the list of those who came before Jesus. They remain on the list today. They are a test of our love in action.
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