Kierkegaard - Works of Love Chapter 5

Our Duty To Be in the Debt of Love to Each Other

Love is a passion, a want, a longing.  "It takes everything and it gives everything."

Love is best described as an infinite debt.  And it is the lover that is in debt, it does not place the loved one in debt.   To the loved one the most trifling expression  is infinitely great than all sacrifices and all sacrifices are infinitely less than the smallest trifle in making partial payment on the debt.

As soon as love concentrates on itself it is out of its element - it is lost when it becomes an object for itself. It becomes a fixed point, a  boundary or a stopping place instead of an immeasurable infinitude.

For love to be truly earnest, we must recognize a higher power over it. Otherwise it is simply human passion, intention, or fanaticism.  Only the God-relationship is earnestness.   Since Christianity does not simply ponder or dwell on the condition, but hastens to the task, there are two aspects to love; namely conscience and act. 

The second aspect of acting out one's love in the world creates a double danger.  The first is the self-renunciation side of love which by definition puts one's own will beneath everyone else's.  The second is the resulting mockery of the world which considers this foolish behaviour.  The mockery grows stronger the more earnest a Christian one becomes. The example Kierkegaard uses is that of two sets of children playing together.  One set of children brought up very strictly join a group of children who were not brought up so strictly.  When the strictly brought up children refuse to join in with some of the behaviour of the less strictly brought up children, they will be seen as foolish and mocked because they do not understand the strictly brought up children's behaviour.

When one recommends Christianity, one should not be silent on this danger.