death by love

Love is not defined by abstract concepts, love is defined by an event... and that event is the cross. It is very humbling, but it is our only hope to submit to this, for we are helpless to desire real love without it, that is devoid of ourselves, that is truly genuine...

1 John 4:7-12
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.



"God calls us to cruci-formed love, love that shapes itself to the cross of Jesus Christ... which can be defined as willing self sacrifice, for the redemptive good of another, that doesn't demand reciprocation or the person that is being loved is deserving." -- Paul Tripp



... our hope can only be in the cross, because no one is deserving, everyone fails, all are prideful, all need to be redeemed...