Seated behind a wooden desk and dressed in traditional Ottoman attire, the Turk is one of the greatest chess players of all time. Known only as the Turk, he entered the chess scene in 1770. Presented at the court of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the Turk wowed the crowds. Turbaned head, colorful robes, he won chess match after chess match without breaking a sweat or taking a break. His chess skills were remarkable, especially considering the fact that he wasn’t human.
I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.
The Mechanical Turk, simply the Turk for short, was a robot, more specifically, he was referred to as an Automaton Chess Player. The creation of Wolfgang von Kempelen in the 18th century, the Turk traveled the globe wowing crowds from Europe to Russia to the United States. Everywhere Kempelen took his creation, the fame spread. From St. Petersburg to Berlin to Philadelphia to New York – crowds were mystified and intrigued by the amazing automaton that could play chess… and not only could the Turk play chess – he could play chess really well. In a famous match in Paris, the Turk was pitted against Francois Philidor, the greatest chess master of that age. An epic showdown, the Turk was finally beaten by a human… but Philidor would later say to his son that it was “his most fatiguing game of chess, ever”. Though he lost, the Turk’s fame catapulted after barely being beaten by the best humanity had to offer.
He went on to play Benjamin Franklin, Catherine the Great of Russia, and even Napoleon Bonaparte. Interesting fact – Catherine the Great and Napoleon both attempted to cheat during their matches and the Turk caught them and wipe all the pieces off the board in response. Benjamin Franklin – he didn’t cheat. Why? Because he’s Benjamin Franklin and this is the guy who who penned Poor Richard’s Almanac with such gems as “’Tis hard but glorious to be poor and honest.” and “tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have not wit enough to be honest.” I digress, but seriously pick up a copy of Poor Richard’s Almanac – it’s pennies well spent.
Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen used to start every exhibition of his famous Mechanical Turk with the same routine. The cabinet upon which the chess board sat would be opened with a flourish and the gears, wheels, cogs, and pulleys would be revealed. Then the cabinet would be turned and the robes of the Turkish figure opened to reveal further whirling mechanisms and intricate innards. The crowds were shocked and stepped up to pay five shillings apiece to watch him play. It was the inception of artificial intelligence. It was the beginning of an industrial revolution. It was engineering at it’s finest. It was all fake.
Turns out that Kempelen was a great inventor… just not the type everyone thought he was. He invented an amazing magic trick, and perpetrated one of the greatest international frauds of all time. That cabinet full of gears and engineering wizardry left enough room for Kempelen to hire a chess player in every city he traveled to and squeeze them in behind the machinery. The complicated clockwork mechanisms were meant to intentionally mislead the public. In reality there was just enough room for a human to fit within that beautifully carved cabinet. There was also an impressive lever system used to control the arm of the Turk and a series of magnetic linkages that allowed the hidden chess player to see what was going on upon the chessboard above. Kempelen was playing chess of a different kind. He was thinking several steps ahead of his audience at all times and playing an exceptional game of misdirection and illusion.
So, what does this have to do with love? We have often talked on this podcast about things that masquerade as love without actually being love. Today, we are going to talk about a type of love that isn’t entirely fake… but it also isn’t good enough. It is the type of love that Jesus refers to as ‘imperfect’… and it has a sneaky way of taking over our lives and giving us a sense that we are loving people when we really have a long way to go before we have attained the real thing.
Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mat 5:43-48)
There is a type of love that is automatic – any automaton can do it. When you love people who love you back – that’s easy. There is nothing special about it. Everyone has family and friends of some sort. These relationships are built upon mutually beneficial lines. You are simply loving those who love you back. Reciprocity is at the root of this love – which means it is love that is based upon what is best for me… not what is best for them… and that’s a dangerous foundation for love. It certainly isn’t the kind of love that we should be striving for. There is no higher calling or virtue in reciprocal love. It is average, ordinary, and frankly, not good enough. Certainly not good enough for a podcast title ‘Love Better’! Jesus says we should seek perfect love – the kind of love that would love our enemies as well as our friends… which means that love that only is offered to those who love us back is imperfect love.
Consider another verse in Luke 14. As Jesus is sitting at a dinner, He turns to the host and has the audacity to make a very uncomfortable statement about hospitality.
"When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." (Luke 14:12-14)
Most of us, when we show hospitality, have some level of reciprocity in mind. We invite those who have previously invited us perhaps because we feel a sense of obligation or we invite those we are hoping will repay our kindness with kindness in return. We invite into our homes and our lives those who make us feel comfortable, appreciated, and secure. After all, our homes are our own special domain, our fortress against the ugliness and discomfort of this world. Why invite in those who will mar that tranquility?
But Jesus points out that if that is the only type of hospitality that we show, then we aren’t really showing love… we are playing chess. We are thinking about the next move – how we will be invited or repaid for our generosity. We are considering what we can gain or lose from our kindness to others, which sounds a lot less like love and a lot more like manipulation. Jesus’ statement to His dinner host was either a fantastic compliment because Jesus realized that He had been invited though He had no money to repay… or it was, and this is frankly more likely, a condemnation that the only reason Jesus had been invited to dinner was because Jesus was an important person. If Jesus hadn’t been such a big deal, He likely wouldn’t have been given a seat at the table. Which is sad because if we are playing chess then we are leaving seats empty that can be filled and opportunities to do good are being missed because we don’t see the benefit to ourselves.
When we are thinking about how to win… we may not be being honest with ourselves about our own motivations. And that’s the danger of imperfect love – it can deceive our own hearts. We ARE showing love, but just to certain people. We ARE being generous, but only in certain circumstances. We ARE thinking of others, but only after we have subtly thought of ourselves first. It is love, it just isn’t good enough.
And even if we can deceive ourselves, we aren’t deceiving God and our imperfect love will be seen for what it is by our fellow man, too.
Though the Mechanical Turk tricked loads of people, there were many others who always knew there was something fishy going on. Newspaper writers, inventors of the day, including engineer and mathematician Charles Babbage who would later become known as the “father of the computer”, and many others were vocal skeptics of the incredible automaton that miraculously came from nowhere to take the chess world by storm. Incredibly, Edgar Allen Poe wrote an entire paper on the subject of the Turk lambasting it as a fraud and listing seventeen reasons it cannot be purely a machine. Poe was obsessed with the Turk because he viewed it as a fraud that sullied the reputation of real inventions, like the newly created calculator, that was actually changing the world for the better.
Which is exactly what happens with imperfect love – it gives love a bad name. It makes people think that love is just a transactional thing. We love those that love us and that’s where it begins and ends. Which paints a picture of love as a selfish, greedy thing that seeks its own and turns a blind eye to the poor, the traumatized, the weak, and the injured. Imperfect love tarnishes the good reputation of perfect love. The kind of love that God offers us in that while we were still sinners Jesus died for us is perfect love. It is the kind of love that can’t be earned, can’t be bought, can’t be repaid, and can’t be wooed. It is transcendentally good love – and most of mankind doesn’t believe in it because we have only been familiarized with the kind of love that asks for something in return.
No wonder the world is full of skeptics. A lifetime of experiencing mediocre love, has a way of making skeptics who consider the selfish motives of most relationships as a good reason to not believe in a God who could love better than that.
Which brings us back to how we can love better. Charlatans have a way of making skeptics… and perfect love has a way of making true believers. If you can show hospitality, even once a year, without the thought of reciprocity. If you can show generosity without concern for who receives it or what it will do for your reputation. If you can learn to love your enemies and do good to them when hostility and conflict surrounds the relationship at every side… you might just show them that the frauds aren’t proof that genuine love doesn’t exist. Perfect love points people toward a perfect God.
Which brings me to the final aspect of learning to avoid chess love. Watch out for people that would love you only when you have something to offer. The world is full of people that will show you imperfect love. They will love you when you make them feel smart or buy them lunch or when your reputation is up and they look good standing next to you… but beware giving your hearts to folks like that. They will love you and leave you as soon as the hard times hit, the bad press arrives, or you don’t have something to offer anymore… and if you have invested your heart in them, they may turn you into a skeptic, too. Jesus warned His disciples about these types of folks in Luke 20:
“in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." (Luke 20:45-47)
There are frauds everywhere in this world, in every profession, and in every family… but don’t let the frauds fool you. Genuine, perfect love does exist. God loves you and His love is as real as the cross.
So, don’t fall for the fakes… and don’t let your own imperfect love deceive you into thinking you can’t do better.
Learn to love better – learn to stop making chess moves. Perfect love doesn’t seek its own and it has nothing to hide. Pure motives lead people to the pure love of God.
If you've listened this far, hopefully we've done something to help make your life a little bit better. Would you mind returning the favor and helping us by subscribing to the podcast through your favorite platform?
By sharing with others or leaving a review on Apple Podcast, you help us reach more people. Also, if you want more information about the work I'm doing at Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org or my personal Bible site, Biblegrad.com, where you can sign up for daily Bible devotionals called Biblebites and receive them in your email each morning, take online Bible classes, or find videos that will help you study through the Bible throughout the year.
And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”
