Triperspectival Love

One of my favorite pastimes has become thinking, talking, and living triperspectivally. Now, I don't like the word because it makes me appear smarter than I am so I will stop using it after I define it. Triperspectival love is best defined by Jesus himself when he said the two great commandments were to love God and love others. When he mentioned loving others, he had two camps in mind, the people of God and those who were not counted in that number as the people of God. So in essence, if we were going to look at love triperspectivally, we would say that we should love God, love his people, and love those who don't follow God.

Many followers of God have jumped on Jesus' bandwagon and simply redefined these terms of love. I am glad they have done this because love sometimes has become cliche for people. For example, many times older, middle-class, white, Christians proclaim we should love the poor, but are vehemently against going to Covington, KY or downtown Cincinnati, OH because of the crime, theft, murder, and drugs. I see this as a complete contradiction of terms. I would say this would be the exact opposite of love. At best, it's definitely the opposite of what Jesus did when he was on Earth.

Well, anyways. I simply wanted to mention the terminology floating around out there that many disciples of Jesus have come up with. I like their terms, some better than others. My encouragement would be to adopt one of these groupings, or mix and match them, and use them often. I have done this and it's given me fresh perspective on what "love" is. So here they are [in no particular order]:

Jesus
Love God, Love Church, Love World

Soma Communities, Vanderstelt
Disciple, Family, Missionaries

Total Church, Chester
Gospel, Community, Mission

Matt Chandler
Pietism, Church?, Culture

Organic Church, Cole
Divine Truth, Interpersonal Relationships, Apostolic Mission

Robert Banks
Worship, Edification, Mission

Mark Moore
Believe, Belong, Bless

Peter LaRuffa
Celebrate, Connect, Contribute