Do we understand what love is?

(J.R. Miller, "Help for the Day")

Do we understand what love is? We like to be loved, that is, to have other people love us, and live for us, and do things for us. We like the gratifications of love. But that is only miserable selfishness, if it goes no further. It is a desecration of the sacred name, to think that love, at its heart, means getting, receiving. Nay, love gives.

That is what God's love does — it finds its blessedness in giving. "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son." That is what Christ's love does — it pours out its very lifeblood, to the last drop!

The essential meaning of loving must always be giving, not receiving.

"Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for her" Ephesians 5:25