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Sunday 16 February 2014

The love we give away is the love we keep

“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.

Yet, through this sacrificial giving away by God the Father, all things are returned to him. Jesus’ death brings all people back to God and his resurrection returns Jesus himself to God. The Christian story therefore promises that, “The love we give away is the love we keep.”

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Bob Dylan - Is Your Love In Vain?

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