The Art of Loving

We tend to think of love as an emotion over which we have no control. However, in his book The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm identifies love as an art and says,

“…if we want to learn how to love we must proceed in the same way we have to proceed if we want to learn any other art, say music, painting, carpentry, or the art of medicine or engineering… aside from learning the theory and practice, there is a third factor necessary to becoming a master in any art — the mastery of the art must be a matter of ultimate concern; there must be nothing else in the world more important than the art. And, maybe, here lies the answer to the question of why people in our culture try so rarely to learn this art, in spite of their obvious failures: in spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power — almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving.”

For Christians, Jesus is the master teacher of the art of loving. Through his teaching and his very life he demonstrated that love requires service, sacrifice, and whole-hearted dedication. He asks us to set aside our desires for success, prestige, money, and power, which ultimately do not satisfy, to become practitioners of love, which leads to everlasting life. This is why he has had such a tremendous impact on the people of the world—he showed us the power and possibility of love.

If we decide to learn, practice, and dedicate ourselves to the art of loving, we will also help others discover God’s love and understand that we are one in the body of Christ. What other pursuit could be more worthy of our attention and devotion?