When Less Is More

John Piper wrote a poem to his son for his wedding day back in '95 called "Love Her More and Love Her Less". (Check out the poem here.)

In Piper prose, he calls his son repeatedly to love his new bride more: love her more than wealth, more than friends, ease, sex, art, and fame. "Love her more than breath...Go love her as your earthly best." So love her more.

But he goes on to say:

Beyond this venture not. But, lest
Your love become a fool's facade,
Be sure to love her less than God.

Ever since my wife drew my attention to this poem, I've been aware that Piper was hitting on a distinctively Christian paradox. In so many ways in the Christian life, less is more!

By keeping our spouse (husbands and wives) as our number two, by keeping our Great and Glorious God as our supreme number one in our life, we actually love our spouse more than if we loved them as our number one. Why? Because that would be to make them the object of idolatry. That would be to exalt them above the glory of God. That would be giving them an honor that they cannot maintain, and asking them to fulfill a role that they cannot sustain.

The most loving thing we can do for our wives/husbands is to love them as God has called us and created us to love them. So the most loving thing we can do is love them more than the world and less than God. Love them more by loving them less!

Question for you all: where else do we see this same paradox in the Christian life? Where / when is less more? Please post a comment with your thoughts by clicking on the comment link just underneath this current post.

Comments

[Mary Hahn]

Love:
I am reading the book "Tozer on the Almighty God", a daily devotional. The last few days have been speaking on the subject of worship. He says "woship also means to 'express some appropriate manner' what you feel. In worship several elements may be distinguished, among them love, admiration, wonder and adoration. It is quite impossible to worship God without loving Him." He says that true worship is the love of God. "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" (Matther 22:37). He goes on to say that until we love God with all our heart, body, soul, mind, we will never know what it is to love the other persons in the world. He said much more on the subject of worship, but when I read your post this morning it reminded me that we really can't love others the way we should until we truely love God first and best.

[Becky Porter]

Mary -

Excellent! Thank you. You make a very good point about the relationship between loving God and loving our neighbors. The most loving thing we can do for our neighbors is help them make much of the glory of God and to point them to their need for Christ. So the most loving thing we do for them is help them love God!

- Ryan