“You're looking at a man who is vehemently opposed to sentimentality. I just hate that squishy, oily stuff! I hate that definition of love, which is squishy, schmaltzy as we Jews say, that sounds so good to the ear and sounds so beguiling, but indeed is not love at all, but some kind of palaver.
I love the kind of love that is divine, that comes from Heaven and which often comes as cutting and often incurs pain which has to do with the divine severity of God, which is so little exercised or expressed by God's people. For they have been succored into the worlds definition of love and have been rendered inoperative. A bunch of schmaltzy platitudes which has no effect and no possibility to shape the character of men for eternity. When have we last spoken the truth in love? When have we exhorted one another daily while it is yet today? When have we confronted one another with needful things, as an act of love? I can't think of any greater expression than what is described in the second chapter of Galatians, when some “Johnny come lately” named Paul recently an enemy of the faith and whose reputation is still suspect, confronted the very pillar of the church, Peter, and that to his face publicly, for the purity of the Gospel's sake. Oh may this spirit be restored to the church! May we no longer walk mincingly on egg shells and wear chintzy smiles and call that love! May we experience the divine severity of God that will make us like Him.” ~ Art Katz
