A few years ago (a few in this case meaning 40!) a book by a psychiatrist named M. Scott Peck explored the scientific dimensions of spirituality. His definition of love went something like this: acting for the spiritual welfare of another. Love is an action, not a feeling, directed toward another, not about yourself, and promotes their spiritual betterment. That helps us to understand the wrath of God in the book of Exodus and Jesus’ fussing with his contemporaries in the Gospel of John. Because God and Jesus love the people they fuss with them so that their change behaviors which are harmful to their spirits. Love requires that we at times chide those we love into acting in ways which promote their spiritual health.
