God's Love for the Unlovable: The Ancient History of Love

October 01, 2023

00:00 32:53

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I have come to believe, based upon a lot of research that our Western view of love, including our western Christian view of love, has much more in common with the Ancient Romans than Paul. Example? The Ancient Romans truly believed that love is a function of the object (per Plato and of course Pygmalion). Let me unpack a bit. If an object (art, drama, person) is beautiful, they should expect to be lovable and loved. If they do not fit with the cultural norms of beauty (size, personality, skin color, sex, etc.) they should not expect to be loved unless they remove all uglies and stigmas. This is such bad news for the vast majority of the population who don’t fit in the ‘right’ categories. I just finished a video review of the summer’s blockbuster movie Barbie. This is at the very heart of the movie's moral messaging. This is not Jesus’ message at all. Jesus’ love actually loves the unlovable. His is the love that eventually brought the Roman Empire to its knees.

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Meet Your Host

Dr. Bill Senyard is a husband, father, pastor, church revitalization consultant, biblical scholar, author of over 14 books, and creator of three online gospel immersion journeys. His primary gift is asking good questions and not being always satisfied with the usual pat answers. The gospel is more powerful than we expect. It's time we start believing that. Want to go deeper? You are at the right place.