“You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving.” Love is essential to a life of meaning and purpose. The need to love and be loved is as important to us emotionally and spiritually as food and water is to us physically. In fact, so keenly felt is our need for love that we will do almost anything to fill the void when it is gone. Herein lies both danger and opportunity.
Acceptance by others can become so important to us that we are willing to compromise our values in order to get it. This is one of Satan’s biggest lies. You don’t ever have to turn your back on your values in order to find genuine love. Real love and friendship will never ask you to do that which is contrary to God’s word.
In spite of its dangers, there are also great opportunities associated with our great need for love. People need to be introduced to the good news that all of us are loved with the perfect love of our Father in heaven. This love is ours in spite of our shortcomings. God deeply cares for us even when it seems that no one else in the world is concerned. One of the greatest verses in the Bible, packed with depth and wonder, is John 3:16 where Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” God loves you. The expression of His love is seen in the act of giving His Son so that you might be saved. In another wonderful passage, the Bible says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Now we can know something about the nature of love. Love is about giving.
John explains our ability to love in these words: “We love because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19). Our love for others will be expressed in giving. We give financially. We give of our time and energy. And, most of all, we give of ourselves. But, make no mistake about it, love demands a gift. This may be love’s greatest mystery; that, in the act of giving, we always receive the greater blessing. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). A life given to love is a life given to God and others. It is, therefore, life at its best – a life filled with purpose, meaning and joy.
— Glen Elliott —