“The love of Christ controls us…” (2 Corinthians 5:14)
I learned a new word recently, a word that comes from the strange world of theoretical physics. (My son is a budding physicist; we talk about stuff like this around our dinner table.) The word is “zeroeth” – as in, “The Zeroeth Law of Thermodynamics.”
“Zeroeth” is an ordinal number, I guess: like “first” or “second” … or “tenth”. It refers to the “zeroeth” event in a sequence of events – something that precedes the first event. Something, in fact, that precedes every event.
Physicists, it turns out, have postulated four laws of thermodynamics: laws that describe the way stuff works all across the universe. The first three were well described early in the twentieth century: the laws of conservation, entropy and another one that has to do with absolute zero. But then came a fourth law – a law that seemed more basic, somehow, than the others. It is a law about equivalences: if Bob is the same temperature as Rick, and Mark is the same temperature as Rick, then Bob is the same temperature as Mark: a pretty basic idea. Now what would they call it? There was plenty of room on the far side of “third”, of course. But this law wanted placement before the others. “First” was already taken: so they called it the “zeroeth” law of thermodynamics.
I looked for the word in the dictionary. It is not to be found. But Webster’s definition of “zero” is helpful, I think: “The point of departure in reckoning; specifically, the point at which the graduation of a scale, as of a thermometer, commences.” The “zeroeth” law is where reckoning begins. It helps you to evaluate everything else.
In missiological circles we have developed many laws as well. We have described laws that pertain to missionary callings and laws that describe cross-cultural service. We have laws about culture shock, language learning, church-planting and evangelism. Our organizations have laws, too. We have laws about applications and furloughs, resignations and retirements … and on and on.
It makes sense, however, to take a lesson from our friends in theoretical physics. Some “laws” are so fundamental – so absolutely basic – that they can only be described as “zeroeth.”
That is the way I feel about the love of Christ: “The love of Christ controls us.” The love of Christ represents a kind of “law” that should qualify and precede every law and policy we can possibly dream up. This is a law that must underlie, in a way, all the others – without which even our best effort at missionary service results in little more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. It must remain our “point of departure in reckoning”, to borrow a phrase from Webster – the basic idea that fuels and judges everything.
“The Way I See It”, September 2001