{"id":378,"date":"2005-06-17T04:57:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-17T09:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/"},"modified":"2005-06-17T04:57:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-17T09:57:00","slug":"the-assessment-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"The Assessment of Love …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/div>\n

\u2026 is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.
<\/span>
In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here<\/a>, I suggested we follow the lights of Tom Holmen\u2019s book, Jesus and Jewish Covenant Thinking<\/a>, and think our way through the various \u201ctheories\u201d of the Christian life. To do that, we looked through the six traditions sketched in Richard Foster, Streams of Living Water<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019d like to conclude by suggesting that Jesus<\/a> taught us (Mark 12:29-31) that the goal of our life was to love God and to love others, and the Apostle Paul taught us that the essence of the Christian life is to \u201clive in the Spirit\u201d (Gal 5:16-26). If this be so, then the entirety of the Christian life, and what we teach about it, and how we evaluate our own life and the life of others, should be around these two nodes: am I loving? am I living in the Spirit?<\/p>\n

The reason we don\u2019t focus enough on what this teaches is that these two ways of life are \u201cunmarkable.\u201d They are too ambiguous, too penetrating, and too qualitative. That, I suggest, is precisely why both Jesus and Paul teach what they teach: these can\u2019t be turned into a legalism. The reason we focus on the other traditions is that they are easily marked, and we can figure out where we and others stand. (Not good.)<\/p>\n

As a professor we are always thinking about assessment<\/span>. (Well, to be honest, we aren\u2019t but our Administrators would like us to and they would like us to because the Assessmocrats<\/span> come to campus every now and again and ask for quantitative information to prove we are with it and measuring the latest trends in education.) And the question we have learned to ask in education, and this in spite of the assessmocrats, is this one: \u201cWhen a student is done with this course, this program, this degree, what will he or she be able to do<\/span>?\u201d<\/p>\n

I am suggesting that this is precisely the question we need to be asking more about love and about life in the Spirit \u2014 two largely unmarkable qualities but which Jesus and Paul call us to be able to \u201cdo.\u201d So, we ask, as a result of this year\u2019s sermons, or this year\u2019s Sunday School classes, or this year\u2019s Bible studies, or this year\u2019s fellowship, or this year\u2019s interactions with friends \u2014 the list is endless \u2014 \u201cwhat will I be able to do?\u201d and \u201cwhat will those under my care be able to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take long to realize that churches are not (by and large) equipped to think like this nor is every Christian ready to be challenged like this (\u201cAre you more loving this year?\u201d \u201cHow so?\u201d). So, we need to move steadily and sensitively toward that goal, but may I suggest that more of us begin to assess what Jesus and Paul thought most important?<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026 is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow the lights of Tom Holmen\u2019s book, Jesus and Jewish Covenant Thinking, and think our way through the various \u201ctheories\u201d of the Christian life. To do that, we looked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus-creed"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Assessment of Love ...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"... is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Assessment of Love ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"... is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-06-17T09:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/\",\"name\":\"The Assessment of Love ...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-06-17T09:57:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2005-06-17T09:57:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"... is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Assessment of Love …\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Assessment of Love ...","description":"... is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Assessment of Love ...","og_description":"... is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2005-06-17T09:57:00+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/","name":"The Assessment of Love ...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-06-17T09:57:00+00:00","dateModified":"2005-06-17T09:57:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"... is much more demanding and difficult than you might expect.In this the last in a series of blogs on Legalism, beginning here, I suggested we follow","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/17\/the-assessment-of-love\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Assessment of Love …"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}