The Three Dimensions of Love

Edward Vennerholm is the author of this article which appeared in the September 15, 1971 edition of "The Bible Herald" which was published by the Bible Herald Corporation in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Biblical love has three dimensions. Each is distinct and necessary for our lives to be full and complete. Yet, they are interrelated and one cannot exist without the effect and influence of the other two.

The first dimension is God's love for man as expressed in John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

Our loving God created the world and provided all that is necessary for life to exist; food, comforts and atmosphere. In addition, God saw that it was not good for man to live alone so he provided him a help meet. Then God gave man dominion over all that he had created and the freedom to use the creation in any way he chose. Soon man sinned and thereby separated himself from his Creator. But God, maintaining the love He had for His creation from the beginning, initiated a scheme of redemption for His beloved, effective until its fruition in the Son of Man. Why? Because God loved man.

Yet, man continued to sin. His evil grew increasingly worse. Moses said, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). The Lord decided to blot out all living things from His creation but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and saved the whole human race from extinction.

Once again man turned to sin. God sent great men to try to restore His people to righteousness such as Moses, Aaron, David and the prophets but His creatures were stubborn and fickle. When life became difficult and man seemed to be losing ground, he would return to his Maker; while at other times, man would become independent and put his faith in idols. This vacillation continued for several centuries until the scheme of redemption was fulfilled by the sacrifice of Christ once for all. Why? Because God loved man.

The second dimension is man's love for God. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). Man's love for God is a commandment, not a request. We are to love God with all our hearts. The heart is the basis for our emotions and should come from the depths of our innermost selves. Two dominant emotions are joy and sorrow. Our love should be stimulated by joy in knowing that Christ died for us to prevent eternal separation from our Father; and by sorrow in knowing that if we don't do the will of our Father, fellow human beings will be lost forever without God.

We must love God with all our souls. The soul is the seat of our spiritual existence and is the only direct contact we have with God. This soul makes us unique among God's creatures and we must keep the soul holy and pure if we are going to approach God.

We must love God with all our mind, the seat of our intellect, which also makes us unique among God's creatures. Our mind enables us to be freewill agents instead of pawns moved at the will of some superior power. With this capacity of choice also must come the realization that we can very easily condemn our souls to everlasting punishment. Therefore, with this entreaty from God to love Him with all our minds must come the knowledge that here is a power lovingly instructing us how to gain the finest degree of happiness available to any being for an eternity.

The third dimension of love to be considered is man's love for man. "A new commandment I give you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35). The Old Law taught that they were to love their neighbors and hate their enemies. Contrast this with the New Law where Christ stated that we are to love our enemies and pray for those that persecute us. We must see that Christ not only taught this but actually lived it. "...while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). As we took His life, He prayed, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

Christ loved us first and thereby set the example that we are to follow toward our fellow man. Only by loving each other can we possibly show our love of God. "If anyone says, 'I love God' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (First John 4:20). We must approach God on a level that we can understand or comprehend. That level is man with whom we can identify. Since God is omniscient and understands our plight, He encourages us to love him who we can see; and by doing so, we will manifest our affections for Him whom we can't see.

The three dimensions of love are coexistent. None of the three can successfully exist by itself. God's love for man is the zenith; the ultimate in affection of one being for another and has been unselfishly manifested through His grace and patience and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the supreme sin offering.

Man's love for God must come from the totality of his being. It must come from the depths, yea the very bowels of this creature and return to God like the sweet smell of the incense that arose from the tabernacle of old.

Finally, the love of man for man must be the binding chord that holds man to God and keeps him from being flung into eternal separation from the Almighty.