From Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I was going through some books on my shelves when I came across a devotional I bought over a year ago and totally forgot I had. I opened it up to today's meditation and was struck, once again, by God's perfect timing. May this bless you as well.

"Self-Centered Love"

There is...a "merely emotional" love of neighbor. Such love is capable of making the most unheard-of sacrifices. Often it far surpasses the genuine love of Christ in fervent devotion and visible results. It speaks the Christian language with overwhelming and stirring eloquence. But it is what the apostle Paul is speaking of when he says: "If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames" (1 Cor. 13:3)---in other words, if I combine the utmost deeds of love with the utmost of devotion---"but do not have love (that is, the love of Christ), I would be nothing" (1 Cor 13:2). Self-centered love loves the other for the sake of itself; spiritual love loves the other for the sake of Christ. that is why self-centered love seeks direct contact with other persons. It loves them, not as free persons, but as those whom it binds to itself. It wants to do everything it can to win and conquer; it puts pressure on the other person. It desires to be irresistible, to dominate. Self-centered love does not think much of truth. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and the person loved. emotional, self-centered love desires other persons, their company. It wants them to return its love, but it does not serve them. On the contrary, it continues to desire even when it seems to be serving. (from Life Together p. 42)

Whoa...........