There’s a really profound thought about love, from the psychologist Eric Fromm - he says:
“If I truly love one person I love all persons, I love the world, I love
life. If I can say to somebody else, "I love you," I must be able to
say, "I love in you everybody, I love through you the world, I love in you
also myself.”
Fromm meant that to love someone fully is to embrace their interconnectedness with others, with a regard to a kind of shared humanity – which I agree is true, but I think it’s even deeper than that. If it’s true that “If we truly love one person then we love all persons”, then the corollary gives us two even deeper truths; 1) that we have to love all persons before we can love our beloved in the way God intends, and 2) that if we don’t love all persons, then we don’t love our beloved in the way that God intends, which means we love them inadequately, and not at the level required to be the greatest blessing to them.
That is complex, and takes a lot of unpacking, but if it’s correct – and I can conceive of the possibility that, at the Divine level, it probably is correct – then it’s a simultaneously challenging and wonderful thing to comprehend. The capacity to love universally (love neighbour as oneself) reflects emotional maturity in understanding that love is not confined to people who offer individual benefit, but as expansive force that spreads across humanity, finds its origin in God, and is revealed through Christ. And one doesn’t have the maturity or capacity to love a beloved as required by God unless one has the maturity and capacity to love universally.
In understanding what is required to truly love a beloved, one comprehends universal love regarding everyone’s infinite value; and in comprehending universal love regarding everyone’s infinite value, one understands Christ’s call to love our beloved Divinely as He loves all of us. The truest love for a beloved grows from an ability to see them not only as an individual but as part of a greater humanity. And the more we embrace a Christ-like, universal love, the more completely we can love our beloved—both through the deeply intimate connection in exclusive, romantic love, but through their connection to everyone else in the world.
