“God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life.” (John 3. 16)
“God so loved that he gave ...”
There is a saying that: “Love grows by giving.
The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is
to give it away.” (Elbert Hubbard)
“God so loved that he gave his one and only
Son ....”
There is another saying that, “If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they’re yours; if
they don’t they never were.”
In
terms of romantic, parental and community love, this is saying that love isn’t owned and
cannot be taken - it can only be given. So if we love someone, we have to give
that person the freedom to choose for his or herself. That means letting go of
our control over them. At times, this means that those we love leave us and
ultimately, of course, it means we have to let those we love go into death.
We see love involving letting go
and setting free most obviously in parents giving their children space and time
in which to grow and make their own decisions. It is a risky business; parents
don’t know how the choices their children make will turn out in the long run
and so they have to battle against the tendency to control, in order that they can
genuinely love their children by letting them go and grow into independence.
Sacrificial love is deeper still. God gave his one and only Son - not in order that
his Son would benefit personally from this act of giving but that, through the
loving sacrifice of his Son’s life, all peoples everywhere can be saved. This
is the ultimate in giving love away.
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Bob Dylan - Is Your Love In Vain?
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