[From Part II, Chapter
X: “The Work of Love in Praising Love”]
“[B]ut just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.” 1 Thessalonians 2:4 (ESV)
“The world has never been so good, and so good it will never be, that the majority [want] the truth or have the true conception of it so that upon its proclamation it promptly and necessarily wins the approval of all. No, he who wills in truth to proclaim something true must prepare himself in some other way than with the aid of such a beguiling expectation; he must be willing essentially to relinquish the moment.”[1]
Last week we posed the question, “how
do we continue to learn about the nature of Christian love?” Kierkegaard
provides two answers. Last week we examined his first answer: “the work of
praising love must be done inwardly in self-renunciation [or self-denial].”
This week we will take on his second claim: “the work of praising love must be
done outwardly in sacrificial disinterestedness.”
What does “sacrificial
disinterestedness” mean? In the opening quote, Kierkegaard points out that a
person who wants to speak the truth cannot simply depend on how people respond
to what he says. That is, finding truth is not simply a matter of finding the
most popular opinion. He continues,
“Even an apostle says he strives ‘to win men,’ yet with the addition, ‘But before God we are revealed. [2 Corinthians 5:11]’ Therefore there is absolutely no thought in these words of this selfish or cowardly, fearful craving to win men’s approval—as if it were the approval of men which decides whether something is true or not.”[2]
Popular opinion does not produce
truth, even if it produces publicity. In order to seek truth we must set aside
any selfish interest we may have in being popular or influential or powerful,
and seek truth for its own sake. This is what Kierkegaard means by “sacrificial
disinterestedness”: sacrificing our own immediate desires for the sake of
truth. From here Kierkegaard begins to apply this logic to the church of his
day. Keep in mind that when Kierkegaard says, “in these times,” he means 1847
Denmark—although he could just as easily mean 2016 America:
“And now in these times. How necessary disinterestedness is in these times when everything is done to make everything momentary and the moment is regarded as everything!—Is not everything done to make the present moment as supreme as possible, supreme over the eternal, over the truth, is not everything done to make the present moment self-sufficient in almost proud ignorance of God and the eternal, so conceited in presumed possession of all truth, so presumptuous in the idea of itself being the discoverer of the truth!”[3]
In 1847 Denmark—and more so 2016
America—people had become focused on “the moment:” that is, what is happening
right now? How am I being effected right at this moment? A person can tell a
lie and experience immediate benefits, but in the long run they will be harmed
by their lying. In the modern age we care more about the immediate effect of
our words—the popularity they bring us, the attention (often regardless of
whether it is positive or negative)—without any mind to whether our words are
actually true, and what their eternal consequences will be. Kierkegaard also
predicts how we dumb down our statements to make them more easily-digested:
“All communication must be contrived opportunely into a light pamphlet and be supported by untruth upon untruth. Yes, it is as if all communication must finally be so contrived that it can be presented in at most an hour before a gathering which spends half an hour for noises of approval or disapproval and for the other half is too confused to gather up the ideas. And yet this is considered to be the highest: to be heard and admired for an hour. Children are brought up to regard this as the highest: to be heard and admired for an hour.”[4]
Kierkegaard’s ultimate critique
of modern society is that we have become focused on the immediate impact of our
words and not their eternal significance, and so we get sucked into the clamor
of sound bites, headlines and taglines without caring about the truth behind
them. Our churches, when we choose our words based on their immediate impact
rather than their ultimate truth, forget about God:
“Amid all this God sits, as it were, in Heaven and waits. No one longs to be away from this noise and tumult of the moment in order to find the quiet wherein God dwells; although men admire men and admire God—because he is like all the rest—no one longs for the solitude in which one prays to God; no one in longing after the standard of the eternal disdains this cheap secession from the highest. –Such is the importance the immediate moment has come to have in itself. Therefore sacrificial disinterestedness is required.”[5]
If we wish to speak truthfully
about love, we must set aside what is popular and focus on what is true.
Christian leaders must not be swayed by the temptation to tell people what they
want to hear instead of what God wants to be preached. Christian churchgoers
must take care that they are seeking truth rather than popular opinion, because
very often the preaching reflects the congregation. As Christians we must
dedicate ourselves to seeking the truth of God regardless of its popularity,
and we must seek the truth about love in the same way.
Dear God,
Draw me back from the cult of “relevance.”
Throw down my idols of “trending” and “liked.” Lead me to judge truth by its
truth not its popularity. Give me courage and desire to see you word and your
nature as they are, not as the crowd would have them to be.
In the name of your son, Jesus
Christ, who bore the spite of the crowd as he went to the cross,
Amen.
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