Rambling Thoughts: Obstacles to Loving One Another V

So, interestingly...or perhaps now, obviously. We will not have time for loving one another.

And worse yet, one another, we are rivals. Your success diminishes my success. Your attention diminishes focus and valuation placed on me. Spending time with you detracts from building up my value in the eyes of others.

This whole spiral of busyness is because we are "seemingly" bereft. We are without. We must do, acquire because we do not have. And here we come to love. You do not find love in bondage and in want -- for this is the environment of use.

There are three types of love in Greek I am told. Eros, which is self for self love. "I love because of what you can do for me." Or "I desire the highest and the best for myself." There is phileo, brotherly love, which is self for us. "I desire the highest and the best for you and me." Then there is agapeo, which is self for others. "I desire the highest and best for you." hat tip: Paul Anderson-Walsh of The Grace Project.

This is why agape is self-sacrificial because you are not in the picture. It's the other's highest and the best, not your comfort, not your validation, not your success, not your needs. It's self sacrifice and it's done freely because there is no impediment by the self.

Well, according to the "playbook." God is love (agapeo). Now wait a minute, what does that mean? That means He's NOT the Manipulator. A Manipulator is a self for self lover, it is Eros love. So He is the provider, He is the communicator, He is the Wisdom, He is the Way. He is the Giver and He is the one who values. We are not orphans.

No longer a playbook, the Scriptures are also reveal that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were before there was a creation. And it reveals that God is not changing. And we see in the Gospels a Father who is totally in love with the Son. And we see the Son completely intent upon the highest and the best for the Father. The Father was giving to the Son and the Son was giving to the Father, both with no thought to themselves.

In eternity past, they were the same. They needed nothing for themselves but just completely gave. God needs nothing, He is FREE to give. And Christ on earth trusted in the Father, and He was free to give because He did nothing except by way of the Father.

And in an immense act of love for us. Father and Son and the Holy Spirit have grafted us into their relationship.

All the things we need are covered IN HIM. There is nothing from others that we really need. We can REST IN HIM. We don't have to earn His affection. We have it no matter what we do. All our needs are covered and more. We can now give. We are now free to choose to give. We are now freed to follow Him in giving. We are now free to listen to Him in giving of our most precious possession. The only thing we cannot acquire more of...time.