September 26: Made for Love

God created us to be His image bearers (Genesis 1:27). Because God is love (1 John 4:8), to bear His image is to live in love, just as He Himself is love. In other words, we were made for love—not power, survival, ego, or hoarding—we were made from love and to love and for love.

At the back end of the universe is a Triune Community of Loving Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who eternally exist in the mutually indwelling bonds of self-giving love for one another. One God in three persons, united in co-eternal love. In creation, that eternal triune love burst forth in overflowing joy and the universe was born. In love, the triune God brought us into this world as His special creation, His image bearers, that He might share Himself with us. We were made to be loved by Him. And we were made to love Him back with every fiber of our being.

Alive in the love of our triune God, we were also made to love one another and, in love, care for the good creation God gave us as a gift. We were made to love each other deeply. To serve one another as neighbors, brothers, sisters, and fellow image bearers. We were made to lovingly steward all of the good gifts God gave us, serving one another with the resources of creation.

In our innocence, before everything went so terribly wrong, we were created for loving service of God and one another. Our souls were made to be most alive through self-giving love of others, because that’s the very kind of self-giving love God has in Himself. We exist because of the self-giving love of our triune God. And we exist to extend that same self-giving love to others. We were made for love.