The Lens of Love

WARNING: this devotional may mess with your understanding of scripture.

This week we’ve been thinking about how to look at scripture with new lenses. Today we’re going to look at how early church leaders looked at scripture: they did so through the lens of love. That means that they presupposed that the scriptures were about God loving us and inviting us to love God back and love others. And that lens affected how they interpreted scripture.

So when Jesus gave his inaugural sermon, he quoted from Isaiah 61, casting vision for the sort of Messiah he would be. But he intentionally STOPPED quoting Isaiah in mid sentence because of his lens of love. It made no sense to finish Isaiah’s sentence because it did not convey the love he prioritized.

Here is Jesus quoting from Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor... - Luke 4:18-19

And here is the line that Jesus refused to speak, which is literally the closing piece of Isaiah’s picture and the backend of his very sentence:

…and the day of vengeance of our God - Isaiah 61:2

Or consider Jesus’s approach to interpreting the Law about adultery. Notice how he shifts the meaning significantly in order to protect women more and to call for greater wholeness:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully… Matthew 5:27-28

There were some passages that Jesus simply overrode. He took them head on and changed them to the opposite meaning… because the opposite meaning was more loving!

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you… turn the other cheek. - Matthew 5:37-39

The Apostle Paul followed in Jesus’s footsteps when it came to interpreting scripture. At one point Paul literally changed the words of the scriptures to make them more loving. Paul is trying to emphasize how generous God is so he takes this verse from Psalm 68:18 and instead of God receiving gifts from people (per Psalm 68), God now was giving the gifts to the people! Here are those verses:

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
    he took many captives
    and gave gifts to his people.” - Ephesian 4:7-8

When you ascended on high,
you took many captives;
you received gifts from people - Psalm 68:18

This approach to scripture has not often been taught in the church. Perhaps that’s because there’s more certainty and more control to be had when we don’t look at the scriptures through the lens of love. And this is understandable: if we can simply reinterpret scriptures then what’s the limit? Can we just change them all? Of course, the push back on that would be: what are your motives for wanting to reinterpret scripture - is it love or selfishness? The lens of love is a very helpful approach to this very challenging part of being a Christian.

How might Jesus and Paul’s approach to the Bible affect how you read it?