6
S
UNDAY
March 29
Love—the Fabric of Life
We need to eat and drink in order to stay alive. Without liquid todrink or food to eat, we come to an end soon. But in order to live inany real sense of the word, we also need love. Life without love is asubhuman kind of existence. There is a built-in need in us to receivelove. We need the love of parents. We need the love of family and friends. We need to be part of a loving community. But just as muchas we need to receive love, we also need to give love. We are not trulyhuman if we cannot love. But let’s be clear: True love does not beginwith us. The capacity for love is created in us by our Creator.
(SeeGen. 1:26 and John 3:16.)
How
all-important is love in the life of the follower of Christ?
Matt.22:37–39, 1 Cor. 13:1–3, 1 John 3:14.
____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ God’slove always precedes our love. Whatever else we say aboutlove, this point is crucial. True “love is not an impulse, but a divine principle, a permanent power. The unconsecrated heart cannot origi-nate or produce it. Only in the heart where Jesus reigns is it found.‘WeloveHim, because He first loved us’
[1 John 4:19].
In the heartrenewed by divine grace, love is the ruling principle of action.” —Ellen G. White,
The Acts of the Apostles,
p. 551.The famous British author C. S. Lewis uses the terms “Gift-love”and “Need-love” to differentiate between God’s love and human formsof love. While God wants our lovemore than anything else, He doesnot need our love in the same way in which we need love from Himand from fellow human beings. “We [must] begin at the real begin-ning, with love as the Divine energy. This primal love is Gift-love. InGod there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness thatdesires to give.”—C. S. Lewis,
The Four Loves
(London: HarperCollins,1998), p. 121. Our human loveneeds to be transformedby divine love,so that—while wewill continue to yearnfor love from others—wewill be able to give love in a truly Christlike manner.
From your own experience,what is the difference betweenhuman love and God’s love? What kind of human love bestexemplifies God’s love? How can we better manifest God’s lovein our own lives?
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