In order to satisfy one’s love for these flowers, a wider frame of reference, a bigger understanding of the whole life and function of the plant and its flowers is necessary.Īnd what is this further dynamic, allowing the natural loves to remain such? The answer is charity-Divine Gift-Love-for this alone is “wholly disinterested and desires what is simply best for the beloved.” 2 Cutting them and putting them in water is of no use. As much as one might like the flowers of a passion fruit vine, they do not remain long-a single day, and they whither. These three natural loves alone, in and of themselves, quickly become perverted and distorted without some further dynamic. Lewis writes, “the natural loves are not self-sufficient.” Here he is referring to affection, friendship, and eros-in contrast to charity (or, unconditional divine love). Beginning at the End: Charity and the Atonement Lewis’s contribution to this question of divine love in his 1960 classic The Four Loves. What does it mean to affirm that God loves us-what does it mean for God to be the inventor of all loves, and for these loves to find their ultimate meaning in the cloud of flies buzzing about Jesus as he hangs from the cross? I won’t claim to be giving a comprehensive answer, but here I will explore and develop C.S. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves. If I may dare the biological image, God is a ‘host’ who deliberately creates His own parasites causes us to be that we may exploit and ‘take advantage of’ Him. He creates the universe, already foreseeing… the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves….

God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them God so loved us that he sent his Son to do this work (John 3:16)-but what does this mean for God to love us in this way? For God so loved … Christ’s death and resurrection is a work of love.

Agape cs lewis