Thought for the Day

Saturday 17 January

He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.

— I John

Eknath Easwaran's Commentary

These words sound so ethereal that most of us cannot connect them with daily life. What, we ask, do personal relationships have to do with the divine? I would reply that it is by discovering the unity between ourselves and others – all others – that we find our unity with God. We don’t first get to know God and then, by some miracle of grace, come to love our fellow human beings. Loving others comes first. In this sense, learning to love is practicing religion. Those who can put the welfare of others before their own small personal interests are religious, even if they would deny it.

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By.