Love is the very nature of God and the foundation of spiritual life.
INTRODUCTION
“Father, through the love You have revealed to the world in Christ, help us to recognize more deeply that Your very nature is Love.” 262-43 Paraphrased (AFFIRMATION FOR THE LESSON ON LOVE)
Explanation
Addressing God as Father
The affirmation begins with “Our Father,” emphasizing intimacy, relationship, and belonging.
Love starts with knowing we are God’s children.
Love Made Manifest in Christ
The phrase points to Jesus as the living demonstration of divine love:
His compassion, healing, forgiveness, and sacrifice are how love took visible form in history.
It is not just an idea but something embodied in action.
Awareness as the Goal
The request is not “make us loved” but “make us aware.”
God’s love is already present and active — what’s missing is our recognition and consciousness of it.
Spiritual growth is about waking up to a reality that already surrounds and sustains us.
“God is Love” as a Foundational Truth
This is more than a description — it’s a definition.
Love is not simply what God does; it is what God is.
To grasp this truth is to understand the essence of faith: that all creation, redemption, and salvation flow from love.
In short:
This affirmation is asking for a deeper awareness that love is the very nature of God, made visible through Christ. To recognize this truth is to align our lives with divine reality, and to begin reflecting that love in our own thoughts, words, and actions.
1. God is Love —
“MAKE US MORE AWARE OF ‘GOD IS LOVE.’” 262-43
The affirmation given in Reading 262-43 begins with a prayer:
“OUR FATHER, THROUGH THE LOVE THAT THOU HAST MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD THROUGH THY SON, THE CHRIST, MAKE US MORE AWARE OF ‘GOD IS LOVE.’”
This statement sets the foundation for the entire lesson on Love. Here’s what it means:
God’s Nature is Love
The reading affirms that love is not just one attribute of God — it is His very essence.
To know God is to experience love in its fullest and purest form.
Love is not abstract here; it is the living force of God’s being expressed in the world.
Christ as the Manifestation of Love
God’s love became visible and active through the life of Jesus Christ.
By sending the Son, God provided a living demonstration of what divine love looks like in human experience — mercy, forgiveness, sacrifice, and compassion.
This aligns with the biblical verse: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”
Awareness is Transformative
The prayer asks to “make us more aware,” meaning love is already present, but we often fail to recognize it.
Spiritual growth is about awakening to the love that is already active in our lives.
Awareness leads to a transformation of how we treat others — mercy for mercy, peace for peace, love for love.
Application in Daily Life
Recognizing that God is love means that every act of kindness, forgiveness, and service connects us directly with God.
Love is not just devotional or emotional — it’s practical, relational, and actionable.
As the reading says: “He that would expect mercy must show mercy… he that would find peace… must show love, peace, harmony.”
In short:
This key idea teaches that God’s essence is love itself, revealed through Christ and meant to be lived out in our daily actions. To become “more aware” of this truth is to deepen our connection with God and embody His presence in the world.
2. Christ’s presence is tied to keeping love —
“If ye love me, KEEP my commandments – that I may abide with you.” 262-43
Love as the Foundation of Obedience
This passage highlights that love is not just an inner feeling; it is shown through action.
Christ links love to obedience: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
The commandments He refers to are centered on love itself — loving God fully and loving one’s neighbor as oneself.
Thus, obedience is not legalism but an outflow of love. When we love, we naturally live in harmony with divine law.
Love Creates Abiding Presence
The promise is relational: Christ says that when love is lived out through obedience, “I may abide with you.”
This abiding is not abstract — it is the felt presence of Christ in daily life.
Keeping love alive in thought, word, and deed opens a channel for Christ’s spirit to dwell within us.
In contrast, when we act in selfishness, anger, or bitterness, we close the door to that abiding presence.
Love as a Condition of Fellowship
This idea stresses that fellowship with Christ is conditional upon our willingness to live love.
It’s not enough to say “I love Christ” — it must be demonstrated through living His way.
As the reading elsewhere reminds: “As we show forth, then, in our speech, in our actions day by day, do we make manifest… His love.”
Love is the “evidence” of our relationship with Him.
Practical Implication
Living this principle means:
Choosing patience when anger arises.
Forgiving when hurt.
Speaking kindness instead of criticism.
Serving others even when inconvenient.
Each of these acts is a keeping of His commandments — and each act strengthens His abiding presence in us.
In short:
This passage teaches that Christ’s presence is not automatic but relational — He abides with those who keep love alive through obedience to His teachings. To live love is to dwell with Him, and to dwell with Him is to become a channel of His love for others.
3. Love redeems through Christ’s sacrifice —
“Through LOVE was brought the desire to make self and His brother in at-onement… hence in the atoning… comes the redemption to man.” 262-45
Atonement as At-One-Ment
The reading explains at-onement as the uniting of human will with the Divine Will.
Christ’s life and sacrifice were acts of perfect alignment with God’s law of love.
Redemption, then, is not merely about a transaction (sin paid off), but about restoring oneness with God.
Love is the Driving Force of Redemption
It wasn’t obligation or wrath that led to the cross — it was love.
Christ’s love for humanity impelled Him to give Himself fully, even unto death.
This love sought to bring humanity back into harmony — not just with God, but also with one another (“self and His brother in at-onement”).
Thus, love is the cause, sacrifice is the means, and redemption is the result.
Redemption is Universal
The reading emphasizes that Christ’s atoning act was not limited:
“The shedding of the blood in the MAN Jesus made for the atoning for ALL men.”
Love’s redeeming power extends across all souls, inviting each one into restored relationship with God.
Redemption is offered, but it must be received by living in that same spirit of love.
Practical Application of Redemption
If Christ’s love brought us redemption, then our response must echo that love:
Forgiving others, as He forgave.
Seeking reconciliation where there is division.
Living not in selfishness, but in service and unity.
This means redemption is not only a past event (Christ’s sacrifice) but an ongoing reality lived out whenever love restores harmony in relationships and communities.
In summary:
Christ’s sacrifice was the ultimate act of love, designed to heal separation and restore unity between humanity and God. Redemption is possible because love is stronger than sin, division, or death. And when we live in love, we participate in that same redeeming work.
4. Love is eternal —
“Let thine understanding take hold on the things of the spirit, for they are alone eternal.” 262-46
The Contrast: Temporal vs. Eternal
The reading draws a sharp line between what belongs to the material world and what belongs to the spirit:
Material things — possessions, achievements, even the body — are temporary.
The spirit — love, truth, faith, compassion — is eternal.
To “take hold” of spiritual things is to anchor life in what does not pass away.
Love as the Essence of the Eternal Spirit
Love here is not simply a fleeting feeling or human attachment. It is:
The essence of God’s being (as established earlier: “God is love”).
The force that underlies creation and keeps life connected to its Source.
Eternal because it belongs to the spirit — the dimension that outlives time and space.
Understanding Leads to Transformation
The instruction is to let our understanding grasp the eternal:
Not merely intellectual grasping, but inner realization — seeing love as the true measure of reality.
When we understand this, disappointments and losses in the material realm lose their power to crush us, because love abides beyond them.
In other words: to live with awareness that “love is eternal” is to live with resilience, hope, and perspective.
Practical Implications
Relationships: Acts of kindness, forgiveness, and compassion carry eternal weight; they are never wasted.
Priorities: We are urged to focus less on chasing temporary satisfactions and more on cultivating love, service, and spiritual growth.
Peace: Knowing love is eternal brings peace in grief, since bonds of true love continue beyond death.
In summary:
This teaching calls us to shift our understanding from what fades to what lasts. Love is eternal because it belongs to the spirit of God. When we root our lives in love, we are already participating in the eternal — carrying something beyond time into forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment