“God loves that He may be beloved.
When He comes to command the return of His received love, to complete communion with Him, He says, ‘My son, give Me thine heart,” (Prov. 23:26),— thy affections, thy love.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,” (Luke 10:27). This is the return that He demandeth.
When the soul sees God, in His dispensation of love, to be love, to be infinitely lovely and loving, rests upon and delights in Him as such,— then hath it communion with Him in love.
This is love, that God loves us first, and then we love Him again.
Thus is this whole business stated by the apostle, ‘According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.’ (Eph. 1:4)
It begins in the love of God, and ends in our love to Him.”
–John Owen, “Communion with God,” The Works of John Owen, Volume 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1684/2000), 2: 24.
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