Level 10 – Love is Not What Comes Natural

The 16 Levels of Love – Part 11

The label on level 10 may not be enticing or appealing enough to get you to stop on this level, but I must pursued you because it has a hidden secret that will change your world.

You see, the things we do naturally are the hardest for us to see and detect. Have you ever heard this joke where one fish says to the other, “how’s the water?” The second fish replies “what water?” In the same way, we have become so familiar with what’s natural, common, normal, around us that we are unable to see “the water” so to speak. In level-ten of the 16 Levels of Love, we expose you to the “water that you’re in”, but don’t know it.  Level ten says love doesn’t do what comes natural.

Love does not delight in evil, injustice. It doesn’t revel when others grovel.

To understand level-ten love, you’ll need to clear your mind of what you think the word “evil” means. When you think of “evil”, you envision some horrific killer or someone who could be the star of a horror movie, like Jason or Michael Myers.  That might classify as extreme evil, but you’d never classify yourself as “evil”. Would you?

Evil: wrong, bad, lacking moral, dishonest, sinful, violent, mean, spiteful, hurtful, unkind

After reviewing the definition above, do any of these words describe you, even if at times?  Are you dishonest?  Have you been spiteful?  Hurtful?  How about unkind?

What you may not realize is that every “normal” person is bent towards evil.  It’s the default setting.  This is why “love doesn’t do what comes natural.”

Level-ten: Love does not have a hint of delight in evil or injustice of any kind.
This level is an eye opener because it says something about us that we don’t easily see for ourselves. We are swimming in the “water”, what water?  It’s called “evil”.  Level-ten is designed to help us see what we’ve not been able to see.

Love does not delight in evil, injustice.
When you love and try to remain your normal self, you actually are saying I don’t love you.  With each wrong, bad action, dishonest act, act of violence that goes unnoticed or unaddressed, your love fades.  While the word may be there, there’s no way the recipient feels loved.

Love doesn’t revel when others grovel.
When we display evil (our new definition), we are exerting our power, authority, over another.  When we do this with delight, it reveals that we don’t love.  Love can’t be evil.  There are no evil acts produced out of love.

Level-ten’s Opposite
Let’s look at a couple of questions to expose level-ten love’s opposite.  These represent identifiers of when a person “delights-in-evil”.

• Does what you watch give the appearance that you like evil?
• What does God call evil that you call funny?
• Have you ever hurt, wronged, or been spiteful to someone you (say you) loved?
• Do you display characteristics that are unlike God to the recipient of your (so-called) love?

If you identity with any of these questions, stay here with me on level-ten until we can stop saying “what water”, “what evil”.  It’s time we (I) do better.

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Having Level-ten Love
Common: We tolerate things that should not be tolerated and say we are loved.
If the person who says they love us shows us these evil, normal, signs, they couldn’t possible love us. Using words like “everyone else does this” or “it happens in all relationships” is an excuse to be normal, evil, lacking love.

Uncommon (or No-longer-common): Love is constantly guarding against the things that produce evil even to the smallest degree.
The uncommon put their guard up.  They evaluate the natural action, emotions, and feelings to determine if a hint of evil is present.  They don’t just surrender to being normal, they make the shift to being uncommon.  It’s the only way to love.

Here we are at the end of this post, I tried to warn you that this one would be a revealer of one’s self. The good news is now that you know what to look for, you can do something about it.

It’s time; say this with me and insert your name into this phrase:
<Your name> does not delight in evil.  I will not stop at what is natural when it comes to the way I love.

Question: Which definition of “evil”, normal, can you see as a problem to target in your relationship?  Leave me your thoughts or comments below.