r doubt or
hostility seems to overwhelm them. This is the meaning of Christian
fellowship; namely, that we are not an aggregation of individuals, but
instead are members of one body, with every member having his own
function, and the function of every member standing in a complementary
relation to that of the others, of which body Christ is the head. Here
is the source of the love about which we have been speaking and the
process through which love is lived in the life of the world that God
loves.

[11] Luke 10:27.
[12] From _Love, Power and Justice_, by Paul Tillich, Oxford
University Press, Copyright, 1954. Used by permission.
[13] 1 John 4:10. The title of this book was suggested by the familiar
opening words of this verse in the King James Version, "Herein is
love...."
[14] Matt. 10:8.
[15] See Luke 19:2 ff.
[16] See Luke 7:37 ff.

IV

SOME OBJECTIVES OF LOVE

"Little children, let us not love in word or speech
but in deed and in truth."--_1 John 3:18_

The objective of love, as we have seen, is to "move everything to
everything else that is," especially to reunite person to person. This
is an identifying characteristic of the love of God, and it is to some
degree the characteristic of all love. We believe that this love was
incarnate in Jesus Christ. We believe that His Spirit, active in the
world in which we live, seeks to incarnate this love in us here and now.
Furthermore, we have identified some more general characteristics of
love. Now we turn to look at some of the ways in which love accomplishes
its purpose, a purpose which is the responsibility of the church in its
dispersion in the life of the world.

_Love's Sphere Is Personal_

The sphere of love's action is in the realm of the personal; it acts in
and through relationships. The process by which the person emerges is
both wonderful and fearful, and one for which we should have reverence,
the zeal to understand, and the willingness to be responsible for.
Certain specific things need to be accomplished which are the work of
love, which we have already identified as the calling forth of persons.
In this work of love we participate in the reconciling work of God in
Christ today. Let us remember also that children first experience the
love of God through their experience of their parents' love, and that
parents in loving their children are loving God, since we love God b