Quotes About Love

In view of the mess we have made of crystal-clear commands--the unity of the church, love as a mark of Christians, racial and economic justice, the importance of personal purity, the dangers of wealth--I tremble to think what we would do if some of the ambiguous doctrines were less ambiguous.

God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love, said Augustine.

if I care to listen, I hear a loud whisper from the gospel that I did not get what I deserved. I deserved punishment and got forgiveness. I deserved wrath and got love. I deserved debtor's prison and got instead a clean credit history. I deserved stern lectures and crawl-on-your-knees repentance; I got a banquet—Babette's feast—spread for me.

If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those whom he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter a preview of ultimate reality.

All through the Bible, especially in the Prophets, we see a conflict raging within God. On the one hand God passionately loved the people he had made; on the other hand, God had a terrible urge to destroy the evil that enslaved them. On the cross, God resolved that inner conflict, for there God's Son absorbed the destructive force and transformed it into love. Disappointment with God

A human being is not someone who once in a while makes a mistake, and God is not someone who now and then forgives. No, human beings are sinners and God is love.

Politics draws lines between people; in contrast, Jesus' love cuts across those lines and dispenses grace.

En cambio, Jesucristo nunca obligó a nadie a creer en él. Prefería actuar por medio de la atracción, sacando a los humanos de sí mismos para atraerlos hacia él.

we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." And "he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Ya era gran cosa que el hombre hubiera sido hecho antes como Dios, pero que Dios se hiciera como el hombre, fue mucho más. —John Donne, Holy Sonnet 15 [Soneto Santo 15]

What would it look like if a Christian took literally Jesus' sweeping commands and acted on them. What would a Good Samaritan look like today, in urban America?

Contrary to popular belief, love is actually a reflection of how much we 'honor' another person—for at its core genuine love is a decision, not a feeling.

The deepest longings we feel on earth, as parents, as lovers, are mere flickers of the hungering desire God feels for us. It is a desire that cost him the Incarnation and the Crucifixion.

Love one another Forgive one another Pray for one another Bear one another's burdens Be devoted to one another Regard one another as more important than yourself Do not speak against one another Do not judge one another Show tolerance for one another Be kind to one another Speak truth to one another Build up one another Comfort one another Care for one another Stimulate one another to love and good deeds

no one offers the name of a philosopher when I ask the question, "Who helped you most?" Most often they answer by describing a quiet, unassuming person. Someone who was there whenever needed, who listened more than talked, who didn't keep glancing down at a watch, who hugged and touched, and cried.

Augustine's Confessions...What it is, therefore, he begins, that goes on within the soul, since it takes greater delight if things that it loves are found or restored to it than if it had always possessed them?

The world starves for grace.

sacrificial love is one of the most powerful weapons in the Christian's arsenal of grace.

two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God's unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people. . . . We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that's not the way we live. The good news of the Gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions.

Don't the Bible say we must love everybody?" "O, the Bible! To be sure, it says a great many things; but, then, nobody ever thinks of doing them." HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

First, as should be clear by now, I believe that dispensing God's grace is the Christian's main contribution

My anger about pain has melted mostly for one reason: I have come to know God. He has given me joy and love and happiness and goodness. They have come in unexpected flashes, in the midst of my confused, imperfect world, but they have been enough to convince me that my God is worthy of trust. Knowing him is worth all enduring.

Gordon MacDonald said, the world can do anything the church can do except one thing: it cannot show grace.

Jeremiah affected me more than any other book. The image of a wounded lover in Jeremiah is an awesome one that I cannot comprehend. Why would the God who created all that exists willingly become subject to such humiliation from creation? I was haunted by the reality of a God who lets our response matter that much.