giving out love

Summary: "We love people because we are secure in God"

Often in church we hear the phrase "Giving God's love to other people" or the concept that Christians should be so overflowing with love from God that it just pours out onto other people. Some pastors describe it as 'bending' the flow of God down to us, through us, towards the people around us.

That concept sounded hokey to me. What is this love? It's not some sort of object that we can trade. Love is directed towards somebody, you can't just trade it off.

This is the explanation: God loves us. This means that we are secure, taken care of, etc. He also gives us wisdom, energy, and real physical things like money (only if it's for his glory.)
As someone secure in Christ, all that we have we can freely give away because it will not endanger us. Those who don't have protectors are hoarders and often grumpy. This is because they're in danger all the time.
Not if you have God on your side. Then we are safe even if we give everything away, because we will still have God, and he is worth infinitely more than everything.
So do we really give out God's love? Kind of. We can love others because God loves/protects us. And there are parts of Gods love that we can literally give away, like money. In a more abstract sense, we can do that with wisdom and peace of mind too.

See, the definition of love: 1 John 4:10 "This is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." God's love is not this ethereal fuzzy thing, it's concrete help. God absolved our sins by dying for them. That's real.
Now, because we don't need to take care of ourselves, we're free to follow God (something he designed us to enjoy) 2 John 1:6 "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love."
So what is his command?
Matt 22:37-39 "Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
And how do you love your neighbor as yourself? John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
See that logic? God loves us with concrete help, this allows us to follow him (which he designed us to enjoy), following him entails his commandments, which are to love our neighbors, which in its greatest measure is dying for your friends. This is how the love of God transfers to our loving other people.


Anyway...
I got a little carried away.

Know that god has you secure.