John 3:16 speaks of God's love for the world. It is a love which saves us; a love which brings to us eternal life.
"Love" is easily spoken of, but difficult to fully comprehend. We say we would offer our life for another, but when the ship is sinking, we seek our own safety and ignore duty or obligation or affection for others. This is an aspect of how we are made. It is the drive toward self-preservation.
St. Augustine (remember that Luther was a monk in the Order established by St. Augustine) spoke of the difficulty of "loving" because our first impulse to love is love of self. "What is the actual history of man's (sic) love? Simply that he loves himself - passionately, toughly, fiercely, relentlessly." This love, as quick as it is to develop within us, is our downfall. It is a love turned in on itself.
"Unless and until the love with which I love finds its proper object in the love with which I am loved by God I am a prisoner of love too small for love's heavenly nature and scope." (Joseph Sittler)
Perhaps this is where Martin Luther King, Jr. got his strength to love (subject of Monday's devotion.) Perhaps it arose from an ability to step outside the circle of self-love and find that proper object.
It is a difficult thing, to love. Perhaps only God can love the world so deeply as to give one's only Son. God has that love and acts on that love in order that we might not perish but have eternal life.
How will we approximate that love? In our lives?
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