The song and Darnielle's quote above reminds me of what Nietzsche says in Beyond Good and Evil: "That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil." I think that's the message of the song - love is a force separate from morality that causes people to do things that can be good (as the "legacy of the romantic poets" says love always is) or bad (as most of the examples in the song are, just like, as John says, his stepfather mistreated them but still loved them).
The 1 Corinthians verse - "Now we see things as in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face" - comes towards the end of the very famous chapter on love, the one that's read at wedding ceremonies, with the list - "Love is patient, love is kind..." The chapter describes the qualities of love and talks about how all actions are meaningless if not done with love and love will endure beyond our prophecies, our languages, our knowledge. Verse 12 is about the time after the judgment/second coming when we have "put away childish things (13:11)". The final verse of the chapter is "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love," meaning that those three continue to exist eternally. I've always thought 1 Cor. 13:12 was a powerful statement that one day we will understand why things happen; now we can only interpret the world narrowly, because we can't see the whole, but when we're with God we will be able to understand the meaning behind the tragedy in the world.
John seems to be attacking Corinthians' list of only the positive qualities of love and rejecting the idea that doing an action with love automatically transforms it into a good action, while affirming the epistler's statement that love is a constant.
I don't think so. I think he's only emphasizing "but the greatest of these is love" without actually mentioning it. And while I do believe he is questioning many of the positive attributes Paul ascribes to love, I think he's also trying to bend them; we interpret love as a positive thing, as we do kindness and patience, but can't those all be misconstrued?
I don't think so. I think he's only emphasizing "but the greatest of these is love" without actually mentioning it. And while I do believe he is questioning many of the positive attributes Paul ascribes to love, I think he's also trying to bend them; we interpret love as a positive thing, as we do kindness and patience, but can't those all be misconstrued?
The song and Darnielle's quote above reminds me of what Nietzsche says in Beyond Good and Evil: "That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil." I think that's the message of the song - love is a force separate from morality that causes people to do things that can be good (as the "legacy of the romantic poets" says love always is) or bad (as most of the examples in the song are, just like, as John says, his stepfather mistreated them but still loved them).
The 1 Corinthians verse - "Now we see things as in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face" - comes towards the end of the very famous chapter on love, the one that's read at wedding ceremonies, with the list - "Love is patient, love is kind..." The chapter describes the qualities of love and talks about how all actions are meaningless if not done with love and love will endure beyond our prophecies, our languages, our knowledge. Verse 12 is about the time after the judgment/second coming when we have "put away childish things (13:11)". The final verse of the chapter is "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love," meaning that those three continue to exist eternally. I've always thought 1 Cor. 13:12 was a powerful statement that one day we will understand why things happen; now we can only interpret the world narrowly, because we can't see the whole, but when we're with God we will be able to understand the meaning behind the tragedy in the world.
John seems to be attacking Corinthians' list of only the positive qualities of love and rejecting the idea that doing an action with love automatically transforms it into a good action, while affirming the epistler's statement that love is a constant.
I don't think so. I think he's only emphasizing "but the greatest of these is love" without actually mentioning it. And while I do believe he is questioning many of the positive attributes Paul ascribes to love, I think he's also trying to bend them; we interpret love as a positive thing, as we do kindness and patience, but can't those all be misconstrued?
I don't think so. I think he's only emphasizing "but the greatest of these is love" without actually mentioning it. And while I do believe he is questioning many of the positive attributes Paul ascribes to love, I think he's also trying to bend them; we interpret love as a positive thing, as we do kindness and patience, but can't those all be misconstrued?