Love (Transactional and Reciprocal)

“…“Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). If love was the conscious goal for our every action, we would expect it also to produce love around us. (We know from experience it doesn’t always work – there are lots of good intentions that produce less than good results and sometimes others reject our godly love. True love for others is never an effort to manipulate others – to control their emotions or actions or reaction to us. Love is a free gift not a transactional chip.) Nevertheless, having love as both our motivation and our goal would help us to be more empathetic to the needs of others and how we might bring God’s love into their lives.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)

“Love is a great feeling that makes us kin to God, for God is love. In love is the only happiness; it can help us overcome all difficulties and conquer pride and egotism. But not everyone correctly understands what love is. Love is often mistaken for the pleasant feelings we get when we’re treated well; but that’s not love. ‘For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?’ (Mt. 5:46). It’s very easy and pleasant to love someone, to be with him when he only makes you happy. But when communication with our neighbor doesn’t suit us in some way, we immediately change our attitude toward him, often to the diametric opposite: “It’s just one step from love to hate.” But that means we didn’t love with real love; our love for our neighbor was transactional. We liked the pleasant feelings that we got, and when they disappeared, so did love. It turns out that we loved this person as a thing we needed…true love gives but doesn’t demand. And this is where the real joy of love lies. Joy from receiving something is material, consumerist joy, but joy from giving to someone is true and eternal.” (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov)

“Love within the Godhead is perfectly efficacious. In other words, within the Godhead, freedom and love and love given and love reciprocated are commensurate. Nor in the mutuality that the Persons share is there pause, interlude of expectation, distance, or diminishment of personal integrity either for lack of reciprocation or reason of self-absorption. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one and yet “other” to one another.” (Vigen Guroian)

“We feel uncomfortable because God loves us, but we don’t do anything in return and can’t reciprocate. This way, we don’t grow at all. Genuine love, which transforms you from a mere individual into a personality, prompts you to respond to Him somehow—not because God needs our love and not because God coaxes something out of us. True love means freedom. God does not want us to tell Him that we love Him if we do not feel it. The Apostle Peter said after the Resurrection of Christ, when the Savior asked him: Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You. (John. 21:17).” (Protosinghel Galaction Dominte)

“We can deceive ourselves easily and subtly, thinking we are doing the right things but really be participating in a transactional faith not a transformational one. We can pray daily, read the Bible, go to Church regularly, fast scrupulously, and still fall into the mindset that God is pleased with us for doing these things in and of themselves. He gave us these things to do to enter into a deeper relationship with Him and transform our hearts, enabling us to love Him and others more deeply for the salvation of all. He did not give us these things to do to enter into a transactional exchange with Him where we earn His love and favor.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)

“The primary vector in this complex of relationships [God and man] is vertical, that is, the relationship of man to God. Yet this vertical relationship with God is incomplete without the secondary, horizontal vector - the relationship of each human person to all other human persons. The bonding agent in this relationship of persons - God and humanity - is mutual love. The ultimate example is provided by the Holy Trinity, where the bond among the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is reciprocal love. Therefore, the bond among the persons who constitute humanity must also be reciprocal love. One person cannot love himself. To be an authentic human being one must be in communion with other persons "loving one another in reciprocal relationship. The Christian way is in communion, each person with each other and all with God. For "God wants all men (human beings) to be saved and receive His Truth" (1 Tim 2:4).” (Rev. Dr. George C. Papademetriou) “God created everything to be in communion with Himself, and if that is done, humans will share the blissful blessings of peace, harmony and beauty that God planned for us. It is a reciprocal relationship. It means that as we learn to reach out beyond our own idea of those virtues and open ourselves to the promptings of the Spirit, we will develop an appetite for all that is best within and for us. God is always presenting all that is good and beneficial, the meaning of blessing.” (Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky) “Christian love is, preeminently, self-sacrificial love, so-called agapic love, that ideally is not motivated by the expectation of reciprocation.” (Vigen Guroian) “In social encounters where love, gentleness, kindness, and thoughtfulness are mocked, we are to love others beyond the standard of reciprocity (Luke 6:32). We are to do good even when the majority do not return favors (Luke 6:33), and lend when we have no reasonable assurance of repayment (Luke 6:34)…Our Lord places the lofty standards of heaven before us, insisting we rise above our self-serving nature.” (Dynamis 10/5/2014) “Love, in its purest form is a ‘one way street’ in a sense, meaning that when we express love it should not be motivated by the expectation of receiving love. This does not mean that we don’t want to receive love when we express it. Of course we do. We need love from others to literally survive. Rather, it means that if our love is in any way diminished because our expectation is not met, it shows us that our love is imperfect. It also doesn’t mean that we may not be hurt, or even hurt deeply; it just means our love should not grow less. It’s a high standard Christ sets for us but He does so because we are actually made for it. If we do feel our love diminish due to our hurt, we should not beat ourselves up because we can’t love perfectly as He loves. What we should do is bring this to prayer in humble acknowledgement of our weakness and ask Him for the grace to become more loving.” (Sacramental Living Ministries) #RevDrGeorgeCPapademetriou #FrVladimirBerzonsky #VigenGuroian #Dynamis #SacramentalLivingMinistries #FrTedBobosh #ArchpriestPavelGumerov #ProtosinghelGalactionDominte