LoveWe know that the nature of this life is love. As friends of Christ we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourself (Mark 12:29–31). At least that is what our heart is set on learning, and we are making steady progress. Old John says: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7). Of course, "love" here is not the thing that lives in human fantasy and whimsy, song and saga. Love promotes the good of what is loved. Love is defined by the person and the teachings of Christ. Love is the source of the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong . . . Love means that we humbly and simply devote ourselves under God to the promotion of the goods of human life that come under our influence. We live to serve. We do this expecting God to intervene with us to produce an outcome that is beyond all human ability, and we do it knowing that God is the one "watching our back." We cast all our "care" on him, knowing he is the one who takes care of us (Ps. 55:22; 1 Pet. 5:5–7). In that way we know God—and do remember, knowing is our topic—through doing the good called for by love. We will experience a power of a life not of ourselves. That is, precisely, God in action that we are experiencing. From Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge. Copyright © 2009 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
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