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blue bits. red rocks.
Thursday 15 October 2009

When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor, he is getting at the core of what it means to be human – the inherent neeed to be loved by another. Love is the deepest form of human connectedness. Love is a social function of what it means to be human. It is so deep that it is not we who define love in our relationships, but it is the love that binds our relationships together that forms us and gives us life. Loving our neighbor is not just an ethical mandate. It is to name the core of our being. It is to identify that for which human beings are born: to love, and be loved by another. It is as Paul says, that without love we are literally nothing. Without love we are not as human as we can be. Love is what makes us the image of God. It is not the flesh, nor the power of our brains, it is the need for love that can be fully expressed only in our human communities. It is love that defines us. If God is love, then God working in that which defines the core of our humanity is what makes us truly human. For the Triune God is a community bonded inextricably through love. The same love that binds the three persons of God into one is the same love that binds us together. This is our religion. It is not doctrine, but love that binds us together. If we are not bound together by love, we are no longer in the image of what God intended and less human that we were created to be. Drew Tatusko

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