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fullness of personal relationships

We love because he first loved us.  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.  And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.   (1 John 4:19-21 ESV)


“Hence life finds its real utterance not in the isolated development of the self, but in the fullness of personal relationships. Only in response to the needs of others can a man realize his own life. ...  Loyalty to the highest and love for the lowest—love to God and man—these are the marks of the men of all ages who have sought to interpret the mind of Christ.  Mutual service is the law of the kingdom.  Every man has a worth for Christ, therefore reverence for the personality of man, and the endeavor to procure for each full opportunity of making the most of his life, are at once the aim and goal of the new spiritual society of which Christ laid the foundations in His own life and ministry.  Everything that a man is and has, talents and possessions of every kind, are to be used as instruments for the promotion of the kingdom of God."

~ Archibald Alexander, Christianity and Ethics: A Handbook of Christian Ethics (1914)



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