The good that I would, I do not; the evil that I would not, that I do
Who is to deliver me from this body of death? (Paul of Tarsus)
Paul is speeking about the common condition of mankind - the tension between our everyday selves and the selves we aspire to be. We live with the tension by ignoring it, thinking this is the normal state of human existence. Or, we use other people as the yardstick of goodness and judging ourselves against them, believe we are as good as most and better than some.
But can we entirely shake off the sense of an independent absolute standard, a law of love, against which we fall short?
Robert Browning: That a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?
In the language of Chrisitan belief our lives are in a tussle for control between the devil and God.
John Donne in this poem says he is like an occupied town or like a spouse married to God’s enemy and can’t escape, unless God uses a battering ram against his unwilling heart. He needs to be broken and made anew.
Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town to another due,
Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Donne is saying he is helpless to divorce himself and wants God to do it for him.
Anne Bronte penned this verse in her poem “A Prayer”
"I know I owe my all to Thee;
Oh, TAKE the heart I cannot give!
Do Thou my strength my Saviour be,
And MAKE me to thy glory live.
She too says she must be made to live the life she wants.
George Macdonald disagrees with this idea. Love is not about how you feel, it’s about how you live – what choices you make.
We cannot expect God to give us nice feelings so that giving ourselves in love is automatic. Most of the time there are no special feelings, so our internal conflict is to be decided not by feeling but by our will.
God does not by the instant gift of His Spirit, make us always feel right, desire good, love purity, aspire after Him and His will.
The truth is this: He wants to make us in his own image, choosing the good, refusing the evil. How should he affect this if he were always moving us from within? …..
For God made our Individuality as well as, and a greater marvel than, our dependence.
Made our apartness from himself, that freedom should bind us divinely dearer to himself with a new and inscrutable marvel of love;
for the Godhead is still at the root, is the making root of our individuality and the freer the man, the stronger the bond that binds him to Him who made his freedom.
Substituting LOVE for the God idea this might be the translation
We cannot expect LOVE to give us nice feelings so that giving ourselves in love is automatic. Most of the time there are no special feelings, so our internal conflict is to be decided not by our feelings but by our will.
LOVE does not make us always feel right, desire good, love purity, or aspire after a sacrificial life.
The truth is this: LOVE wants to make us in its own image, choosing the good, refusing the evil. How should this be affected if LOVE was always moving us with feelings from within?
For LOVE creates our ability to love but does not make us dependent on feelings of love. We are left with an independent choice of the will.
When two people love there is giving and receiving; it is not a one-way street. So with ourselves and LOVE’s source. It does not overwhelm us but invites us to respond, not out of our feelings but out of our free will.
Oh, TAKE the heart I cannot give!
Do Thou my strength my Saviour be,
And MAKE me to thy glory live.
She too says she must be made to live the life she wants.
George Macdonald disagrees with this idea. Love is not about how you feel, it’s about how you live – what choices you make.
We cannot expect God to give us nice feelings so that giving ourselves in love is automatic. Most of the time there are no special feelings, so our internal conflict is to be decided not by feeling but by our will.
God does not by the instant gift of His Spirit, make us always feel right, desire good, love purity, aspire after Him and His will.
The truth is this: He wants to make us in his own image, choosing the good, refusing the evil. How should he affect this if he were always moving us from within? …..
For God made our Individuality as well as, and a greater marvel than, our dependence.
Made our apartness from himself, that freedom should bind us divinely dearer to himself with a new and inscrutable marvel of love;
for the Godhead is still at the root, is the making root of our individuality and the freer the man, the stronger the bond that binds him to Him who made his freedom.
Substituting LOVE for the God idea this might be the translation
We cannot expect LOVE to give us nice feelings so that giving ourselves in love is automatic. Most of the time there are no special feelings, so our internal conflict is to be decided not by our feelings but by our will.
LOVE does not make us always feel right, desire good, love purity, or aspire after a sacrificial life.
The truth is this: LOVE wants to make us in its own image, choosing the good, refusing the evil. How should this be affected if LOVE was always moving us with feelings from within?
For LOVE creates our ability to love but does not make us dependent on feelings of love. We are left with an independent choice of the will.
When two people love there is giving and receiving; it is not a one-way street. So with ourselves and LOVE’s source. It does not overwhelm us but invites us to respond, not out of our feelings but out of our free will.
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