Love is the first interest in every society, the only factor every majority society repeats in their polls of needs. It is not first in every person, but might be, if the individual knew what it is in fulfillment, how it is gifted, how it can be achieved, and how its uses define our divine meaning in society and to self. Love relates, as a major factor, in the achievement of any individual in the way that the person ought to achieve – as perceived in the mind of God. It is the strongest of all general motivations, for the good of mankind. Love underlies every whole divine family, and carries one from birth to death. It is a gift, proved early in the infant. It can be recognized, cultivated to full bloom, and carry us through the doors of death.
Those persons who miss love in themselves are suppressing some of the image of God in them. Love is in the nature of God. Whatever is in God’s nature has some reflection in his human creation. It is one reason we are called to a demanding morality and humility – from God’s holiness. He knows any likeness to himself in persons is worthy of respect, attempts at emulation, reproduction and demonstration. The loving person is halfway home not because he or she is loved, but because he or she loves. It’s in our spiritual DNA. Large human problems are related to disregard of that understanding. One tends to think of individual worth on whether or not the person is loved, when it ought to be the person is lovable in nature. Virtue is in the loving person, not in the object benefiting from that love – unl4ess the loved makes it so. God gifts that love. It is generated from the everlasting love of God, so remains everlasting to the persons who assimilate it, and are joined to Christ. The cost to self may seem high, at first, but cost fades to benefit when love is practiced. There is something circular in it that returns to the giver. In the course of life, it may be severely tested, and so to prove to loving persons that it is genuine. It will never die. Love is heaven’s atmosphere. In love for others we prove God to mankind. It is for others to catch the proof.
Love is available to all persons even in common grace that tolerates pagan life – in love for all persons. Nevertheless, it does not reach the lasting level of much love noted in the Bible until it is related to Jesus Christ, whose selfless love was demonstrated in his life and ultimately in his crucifixion. It takes God’s love to say from the cross of life’s torture: Father forgive them, they know not what they do. Such realization ought to end anger, wrath, malice, hatred, and the like with their consequences. Mankind needs to see the divine to grasp the meaning fully, and to personal identity in the actualization. (Galatians 6:17) We see God’s love in Jesus Christ. Love is intimate with God – more than we perceive. Understanding God’s love, to the degree we can, we discover the motivation of God in creating beings to be loved by him. A part of that is the giving, with no assurance of return. So it is promised that those who do not choose his love will not be subject to it in what follows hereafter. In faith we should want to be subjected to love.
What if this love were taken as possible and chosen in human events? War would end. Families would remain intact. The needs of the have-nots would be addressed by the haves. Health would improve across the board. Hurting another person would be accidental, or imposed by the risks of daily life – not by persons practicing God’s love. The list can well be extended for benefits. If this summary is true the Christian can, at the least, live personally in the force and healing power of God’s love – as a practical objective for everything he or she does. Even though we do not gain the larger scenario, we contribute to difference for good in love, remembering the magnificent words: Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Today, as I edit this Page, I am taken by the events and relationships of the last few days. My four children with their mates (four generations of family) organized a reunion for family members on the days before my ninetieth birthday. The only lasting interest I had in the whole of the festivities was to give and receive the love of the persons of four generations, not only for me, but to experience the love they showed to each other. The persons involved were different in many ways. They had their own agendas. They went their own ways. For shining periods of several days, I saw and experienced love and care. There was never heard a discouraging word – while making love visible. Thanks God! *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020