Some More On Love

SUN., APR. 5, 1992, 6:22 CDT
FARM, STUDY

I usually don’t comment on the same theme in two consecutive Teachings. But I did end that last one with a Selah, which implies that there is more to be said. You managed to awake early enough in this new time frame, so you can hear more about this bedrock of the faith.

Yes, o son, for all of its commandments, Scriptural directives and taboos, and the “trappings” that each culture imposes My favorite religion, Christianity, is based solidly in love. Now that’s a strange statement, wouldn’t you say, for seldom is love seen as “solid.” Love is both an emotion and a chief action of spirit. It cannot be measured or determined in any agreed-upon objective way. When you say that you love Lenore, and she affirms that she loves you there is no way to determine precisely the strength and power of each and whether the loves match each other. When two people proclaim that they love God or love Jesus there is no clear way to check this. (Fewer folks affirm their love for Me, the Holy Spirit, but it is quite acceptable for you to feel thus.)

The best that can be done in the way of measuring is to assess whether behavior matches declaration. If you love Lenore do you treat her as one loved? Do you spontaneously do loving acts? And yet this criterion isn’t clear-cut, for love should not be reserved for certain people and withheld from others. If you are a genuinely loving person, which a Christian should be, then what you do for your “special loved one” is not clearly different from what you do for some others.

Years ago I gave you the difficult truth that love should not be rationed or withheld to make its expression more obvious. In contrast to the general secular truth that the value of any thing is directly related to its scarcity, I proclaim that love is of MOST value, even as there is much of it. For love begets love. When you withhold love you become less able as one who loves… and not just in the expression but in actual loving. Your capacity to love increases only as you actually love, often and with the fullness of spirit.

I am Supreme Love, and My greatest desire is for each of you to love as much like I do as possible. One of the greatest expressions of love is forgiveness for the unloving spirit and acts of another. I forgive in love, but the forgiveness must be accepted in comparable love. Much of My forgiving is not truly accepted because the one forgiven has not enough love. Yet I continue to love, for this is the prime way to help others love more.

With humans, love originates in Me, but the baby and small child respond to the love shown by others, particularly parents and other family. Baptism is a promise of love… from Me and from members of a Christian congregation. If My love is reflected well by mature Christians the church and the Sunday School are perceived as loving places by children. Hopefully each grows up to become an active part of that loving fellowship.

Tomorrow and this week you will celebrate 40 years of marriage, you and Lenore. You loved each other as you married, and that love has grown and developed over the years of life together. There have been challenges to that love, as in any long marriage, but you both have handled these well. Thinking of the good of the other is motivated by love and is the expression of love. That Rule called Golden is directly applicable to married love: love the other as you would have her love you. This is the empowerment to do to her and you would have her do to you. I established your marriage in love, and I shall help it continue with the same power and tenderness.