One of the things mentioned in there was St. Bernard of Clairvaux's (1090-1153) work on Loving God. In Buck-Naked Faith, he talked about the four levels of love for God and how each relates to the way you view God at the time.
The levels are:
- Love of Self for Self's Sake.
- Love of God for Self's Sake.
- Love of God for God's Sake.
- Love of Self for God's Sake.
Much of what I hear on the typical radio station is all about me, me, me (Level 1).
On your typical Christian radio you hear a lot of "Level 2" love. I immediately think of "Amazing Grace" and "Just as I am". This is not bad but...
In much worship music you hear a lot of "Level 3". What comes to mind are songs I have recently learned like "How Great Is Our God" or "Holy is the Lord".
I don't know that I can identify any "Level 4" lyrics, can you help?
3 comments:
Just in living life I continuously bob in and out of levels 1-3. I can count on one hand the times I've been in a place spiritually that would be love of self for God's sake. I'm not sure why it's so hard for me. I can hear some people say, "You're just buying the Devil's lies". To some extent that might be true, but I think it's more along the lines of your previous post - I'm boxing God in.
When you realize the truth of Zeph 3:17 you're close to level 4.
Joel - great stuff!
Joel,
I think this may be a Level 4 song - you tell me - Burn for You by Toby Mac. A very good love of God for God's sake piece would be Matt Kearney's Trainwreck. You can find the lyrics here: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/mat-kearney/trainwreck.html. Very thought provoking post. I've never thought of the concept of different levels of loving yourself beacuse of God's love.
Thanks Kathy, good find... I think "Burn For You" could qualify!
I was also thinking of "Friend Of God" as a possible Love Level 4.
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