Love is personal. Part 1: Love is more than a value; it’s a personal relationship
One objection an atheist might make to me is: “We can see that your faith in God gives you wonderful values. Because you believe in God, you believe in the supreme importance of love, compassion, forgiveness, gentleness, peace etc. Why don’t you just believe in these values? Forget this nonsense about God who is a person of love, and just believe in love?”
It sounds superficially plausible. A person of good character and strong principle could (and many do) build a profoundly good life through the quality of their principles and values. A person might think that they “see through” religion and argue that this is the whole point of religion – that belief in God is just a mechanism to get us humans to act in loving ways. However, there are problems with this avenue.
As I get older, I become more aware of what a fundamentally selfish person I am. I have been saved from the full consequences of this because of the great truth I have discovered, along with countless others: I love because he first loved me. Love is a principle and a value, but that does not do it full justice. Love is an action, and love is personal. I can imagine the wonderful principle of love sitting on a splendid pedestal, and all of us who want to live in love gazing at some symbol of love and being truly inspired by it. And out of that inspiration would come some acts of kindness. But I consider, for me at least, it would not be enough. It would not do justice to my experience of God. It would not express the true fullness of what love is. The “principle” of love would not have enough power to move me sufficiently to live my life better. When we say, “God is love” some people want to say, “Ah, what you mean is that “Love is God” – that is, “Love is your ultimate value”. Why don’t you just switch and say, “I believe in love”?” Because that is nowhere near saying the same thing as “God is love”.
Spiritual Devotion 