Post by remypoe on Mar 17, 2006 12:06:16 GMT -5
Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake.
Therefore, human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person
but as one whom it binds to itself...It desires to be irresistible, to rule. Human love has little regard
for truth. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and
the beloved person. In kingdom love, Jesus Christ stands between the lover and the others he loves...
because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only
Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others, too, can be saved only by
Christ Himself. This means that I must release the other person from every attempt of mine to
regulate, coerce, and dominate him with my love...thus the spiritual love will speak to Christ about a
brother more than to a brother about Christ. It knows that the most direct way to others is always
through prayer to Christ and that love of others is wholly dependent upon the truth in Christ.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Therefore, human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person
but as one whom it binds to itself...It desires to be irresistible, to rule. Human love has little regard
for truth. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and
the beloved person. In kingdom love, Jesus Christ stands between the lover and the others he loves...
because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only
Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others, too, can be saved only by
Christ Himself. This means that I must release the other person from every attempt of mine to
regulate, coerce, and dominate him with my love...thus the spiritual love will speak to Christ about a
brother more than to a brother about Christ. It knows that the most direct way to others is always
through prayer to Christ and that love of others is wholly dependent upon the truth in Christ.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer