Our modern world has committed murder. By trying to live without God, it has killed love.

Millions today no longer look for satisfaction through a loving relationship with God and other people. Life revolves around themselves, and they are busy seeking their own fulfillment.

This fascination with self-interests has even invaded our Christian world, as a look at current bestselling books will show. An analysis by author James Hunter of the eight most prolific conservative religious publishers revealed that "87.8 percent of the titles dealt with subjects related to the self, its discovery and nurture, and the resolution of its problems and tensions. The remaining 12.2 percent of the titles had to carry the rest of the cargo."

We who believe on Jesus Christ must beware lest we fall into the preoccupation with self that marks our culture. Our calling is to love with all our being the God who first loved us, and to love others as ourselves. This is the pathway to a joy-filled, satisfying life.

The New Testament letter of 1 John states, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. . . . Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (4:8,11). Do our lives show that we know God?  — Herbert Vander Lugt