The BEMA Podcast

Episode 494: Vice & Virtue — Love
Date: January 29, 2026
Host: Brent Billings
Guest/Contributor: Reed Dent

Overview

This episode concludes BEMA’s 14-part series on vice and virtue, focusing on Love — described as the “crown jewel” among virtues. Rather than dissecting biblical “love” in the standard exegetical fashion, Reed Dent leads an intimate, literary meditation, blending biblical passages, personal stories, reflections, and quotes to capture love’s mystery, challenge, and centrality in Christian thought and life. The structure is experimental and poetic, aiming to let love “have its own way” rather than simply explaining it.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Approaching Love “In Flight”

• Reed Dent resists the urge to analyze or dissect love, especially when discussing 1 Corinthians 13.
• Love is compared to a “red-tailed hawk…soaring, full of wonder,” best observed in awe rather than captured and explained to death (01:00–03:20).

"I'm afraid that the tendency of many preachers would be to snare it and yank it to the ground and just dissect it... it's like, yeah, we all understand it better, but we kill the thing in the process." — Reed Dent (01:35)

2. “Nine Nonlinear Entries” — Format of the Episode

• The episode unfolds as nine reflective “entries” or meditations, read in alternation by Brent and Reed.

Detailed Segment Highlights

I. Love in the Bible: 1 Corinthians 13 (03:22–05:40)

• Brent reads the full text of Paul's “hymn to love,” emphasizing its poetic power and unique place in Scripture.
• Key passage: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

II. Three Stories of Love (05:40–08:53)

• Reed shares three personal vignettes, corresponding to the love we take (childhood, held by mother), share (romantic relationship), and give (as a parent).
• Challenges the idea that different Greek words mean wholly different kinds of love.

“We’re told… that there are different Greek words for these, and that is true. But it makes us think that they are three distinct things, and that is not true.” — Reed Dent (08:35)

• Brent quotes Frederick Buechner:

“These are all varied manifestations of a single reality… To lose yourself in such ways is to find yourself — is what love is.” (08:53)

III. To Be Fully Known and Loved (09:54–11:36)

• Reed recounts using a Tim Keller quote at a wedding:

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.” — Tim Keller quoted by Brent (10:07)

• Illustrates how hiding one’s true self sabotages love and relationships.

IV. God’s Covenant Love (Isaiah 54:10) (11:36–12:29)

• Recitation of God's unwavering love in Isaiah, even when the world seems unstable.
• “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken…” (11:36)

V. The Maggot in the Wound: Love as Healer (12:29–16:33)

• Reed candidly shares his struggles with pride, pettiness, impatience, and anger — questioning, “do I not have love?”
• Story of a wound cleansed by maggots (his mother-in-law’s PT experience):
  • God’s love, like maggots, enters before we're “clean,” working from the inside out.

“The love of God is a maggot in a wound. God’s love doesn't wait for the wound to become clean, so it can move in. It is the life… eating up the dead things from the inside out.” — Reed Dent (15:14)

VI. Faith, Hope, and Love as an Ocean (16:33–19:45)

• Playful analogy with basketball legends: “Faith, hope, and love abide. But the greatest of these is love.”
• Faith and hope are not separate “greats” but functions within love, as a wave or tide are to the ocean.

“No ocean, no wave, no tide. Nowhere are we told that God is faithful or that God is hope. But we do know that God is love.” — Reed Dent (17:53)

VII. Love as Root of Virtue, and Its Direction (19:45–21:05)

• Aquinas: “Love is the mother and root of all virtue.”
• Virtues untethered from love become hollow or dangerous.
• Love must be for others — not ideas, knowledge, or self.

VIII. The Indiscriminate, Costly Nature of Love (21:05–23:59)

• True love grows less “boundaried” and more universal with maturity.

“Anyone can love their mother when she holds them… but what about when things fall apart?... What about depraved, unregenerate enemies?” — Reed Dent (21:25)

• Christ's love is described as offensive, not because of what it is, but who it is for — it is love “for all,” at great cost.

IX. Benediction: Known and Loved (23:59–24:41)

• Reed closes with a reflection on assurance, echoing 1 Corinthians:

“I used to be afraid, wondering how do I know that I really know God? Then I learned I don't and I won't. What is sure is that while I know very little, I have always been fully known and loved.” — Reed Dent (24:16)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “But if Paul is right when he says… you remain nothing, if love is missing, then… let love have its own way.” — Reed Dent (02:25)
• “To lose yourself in another’s arms… is what love is. Of all powers, love is the most powerful, and the most powerless.” — Frederick Buechner (08:54)
• “God’s love isn’t waiting for us to become patient and humble… it is the very thing working through us to eat up our impatience and pride.” — Reed Dent (15:54)
• “Faith and hope are verbs that love does and is. … Love is the path you are walking on and the horizon toward which you walk.” — Reed Dent (19:11)
• “Love is not particularly special. It’s everywhere, and everyone agrees love is good. The offense of the love of Jesus isn’t what it is, it’s who it is for.” — Reed Dent (22:53)
• “For now, no need to be afraid. What is sure is that while I know very little, I have always been fully known and loved.” — Reed Dent (24:16)

Important Timestamps

• 01:00–03:20 – Opening reflections, letting love “fly” rather than dissecting it
• 03:22–05:40 – 1 Corinthians 13 read aloud
• 05:40–08:53 – Three stories of love; Buechner quote
• 09:54–11:36 – Known and loved; Tim Keller and wedding anecdote
• 12:29–16:33 – The maggot in the wound; love as healing agent
• 16:54–19:45 – Faith/hope/love ocean analogy
• 19:45–21:05 – Love as root of all virtue
• 21:11–23:59 – Indiscriminate and costly love, universal Christ-like love
• 23:59–24:41 – Benediction: assurance of being known and loved

Tone and Takeaways

The episode is poetic, meditative, and intimately honest, striving not to “explain” love but to point to its mystery and necessity. Listeners are encouraged to move beyond theological abstractions and embrace the lived, sometimes messy, always costly reality of love as seen in Jesus — for self, others, enemies, and all.

“Thanks be to God.” (24:41)