Darndest thing. The other day, something profoundly important regarding the subject of genuine love burst forth from the most unlikely of sources, Mike Tyson.
Yes, from none other than “Iron Mike” the boxer; the same guy who for two decades mercilessly bludgeoned hapless opponents into unbidden slumber with his sledgehammer fists preceded by his withering stare.
Tyson was being interviewed in an ABC special, The Knockout, and the subject of his most important influences came up.
Surprisingly, he said his beloved pigeons had been profoundly influential in his life for as long as he can remember. From his early teen years forward, Tyson developed a powerful bond with a flock of pigeons that he housed, nourished and protected on the roof of his tenement building in Brooklyn, New York.
They meant everything to him. In his pitiful early years that were dominated by violence, hatred, mayhem and death, he loved those pigeons more than anything, or anyone else.
The reporter insightfully asked him how he could love such unintelligent creatures so intensely, knowing they won’t or can’t love him back.
Tyson replied paraphrasing, “that doesn’t matter to me. I love them and that’s what counts.” He had nothing else to love, including parents or friends, until those birds came along. They filled a soul-deep longing for something he could love — however unreciprocated.
Little did Tyson know it, but he had touched upon a profoundly important secret ...
Love in All Its Forms
In the original Greek language of the New Testament, four words are translated into English as love: Φιλἐω (Phileō), which is a companionable love, affection, fondness or liking; Στοργή (Storgē), which is a natural affection or natural obligation; and Εροσ (Eros), which is erotic love, a love of passion.
And then there is the most noble kind of love, “Ἀγάπη or Ἀγαπάω (Agapē or Agapaō), which is called out of one’s heart by the preciousness of the object loved. It is a love of esteem, of evaluation. It has the idea of prizing. It is the noblest word for love in the Greek language.
“Agapē is not kindled by the merit or worth of its object, but it originates in its own God-given nature. God is love. It delights in giving.
“This love keeps on loving even when the loved one is unresponsive, unkind, unlovable and unworthy. It is unconditional love. Agapē desires only the good of the one loved. It is a consuming passion for the well-being of others.”
Tyson had unknowingly stumbled upon the way God loves us.
I wrote in my book, My Origin, My Destiny, “Scripture reveals a counterintuitive principle that makes God’s universe tick like a heartbeat, unconditional love.
C.S. Lewis sheds light on this mystery:
“God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that he may love and perfect them ... If I may dare the biological image, God is a ‘host’ who deliberately creates his own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and ‘take advantage of’ Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves. At the center of the universe, we discover a heavily invested creator, a risk-taker, a giver, a long-suffering and patient parent who is desperate for the company of his children (us!).”
Counterfeit Love
How different that is from what often passes for love among most of the people of the world. We tend to demand something in return before consenting to love anyone or anything.
And if it fails to deliver, we dispose of it and move on to the next prospect; this is what accounts for our sky-high divorce rates.
The world’s kind of love has at its heart a bargain, “you give me what I want, and I’ll ‘love’ you back.” You can get that kind of love from a cat or dog.
In contrast, we read of Jesus Christ in Romans 5:7-8:
“We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”
In fact, while Jesus was permitting men to drive nails through His hands and feet, He prayed, in Luke 23:33-35, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”) Talk about unreciprocated love!
How About You?
Would you like to love others as God does? As is written in 1 John 4:9, “By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him.”
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and Internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information, or contact him at [email protected]. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
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