God is love. This divine attribute is an identity rather than a characteristic. God does not merely have love; God is love. Love is outward-facing, seeking to give rather than to take. It intends another's good. So, when we are God-centered, love permeates us. Being God-centered, then, is to be other focused rather than self-focused.
Watching for signs. Given the characteristics of God-centered relationships, utilitarian “friendships” should have visible warning signs. A recent conversation about evangelism provides some examples. If we speak of how many souls we have won, that's a warning sign. Christ wins souls. We plant the seeds and water them. If we befriend someone just so we can witness to them, that's a warning sign.
Friendships should never be utilitarian.
(C) Laura Springer
Musings of a peripatetic wannabe-sage by Laura Springer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License..
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