How are love and life connected

Is there a connection between life and love? If so, what is it? To help us gain a better understanding, let's define our terms.

Love - 

is recognizing someone elses value, worth, significance, and treating them accordingly. This isn't about what we get out of someone or something or only about how we feel about them but how we show them we feel. As DC Talk - the former Christian band - says, love is a verb. 

You could characterize this in several ways; cherishing someone, treating them with honor, dignity, importance; as worthwhile; willingly giving up something you value - be that time or other resources - to show someone you value them more than what you gave up. 

Love at the highest level is always sacrificial - giving up something - but doesn't necessarily feel sacrificial because we love (value) the one we are giving it up for i.e. showing love to. As John said, 

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." 

Though true love is sacrificial it is ultimately something we are glad to do, just as Christ was glad to love us sacrificially even though it was painful. The greater the pain the greater indication of our valuing that which we made a sacrifice for.

How a loving parent cares for their child would be a classic example. We parents pour thousands of hours and dollars into raising our children yet we wouldn't have it any other way. Though it requires a ton of effort and is hard at times, it is a sacrifice we gladly make because we love our kids. 

In this same way, our heavenly Father loves us. He gave up something of infinite value - His Son - so He could have us and share His life with us.

Life - 

is knowing and experiencing our worth, value, significance, etc. When we do, we "come alive" because we feel most valued and significant... in a word, we feel ¹loved. 

Giving life to someone is to acknowledge their worth, value, and significance through our words or deeds. To do this for others brings life to them.

How we do this can be expressed in many ways. Giving them something valuable - such as our time, attention, resources, efforts - to serve them. Telling them how important they are to us, how much we value and appreciate them and backing it with actions.

So you could say love and life are the flip sides of the same coin of value. Love is giving value and life is receiving it. Valuing is what they have in common; either giving it or receiving it.

But where do these notions of life and love come from? 

God is the source of life because he is the most significant i.e. valuable of all beings or things. And therefore He is most worthy of our love and praise i.e. of being recognized and treated as most valuable, most worth being admired, praised, cherished, worshipped, honored, exalted (glorified). 

When God calls us to honor or glorify him, he is saying value me, love me above all other things or persons. Why? Because he is more valuable than all other things or persons since everything else that is, comes from, is sustained by, and points back to Him. He alone is the Alpha and Omega. 

"How great are God's riches! How deep are his wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions? Who can understand his ways? As the scripture says: “Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give him advice? Who has ever given him anything, so that he had to pay it back?” For all things were created by him, and all things exist through him and for him. To God be the glory for ever! Amen." - Romans 11:33‭-‬36 GNB

Because this is who God is - the source (Alpha), the means, and the end (Omega) of all things - to value him as such is to experience our greatest sense of value, for we are like him i.e. in His image and made to share in and experience his glory, majesty, beauty, worth, significance, etc.

We enjoy him because He made us like himself so we could. Like Him, we can give and receive honor and value in and through him; so we can feel, experience, and bathe in His significance, worth, glory, etc. 

For us to feel His worth, we too must experience our own significance in doing so. Our sense of significance comes from partaking of and participating in His. 

In this way, we are like God. God's sense of significance comes in Him valuing Himself within the community of Father, Son, and Spirit. 

We were made like him so we too could participate in the community of love in the same way He does.

For related topics see the following:

Is God on an ego trip?

Love is power 

Why are relationships important?

What is the fountain and foundation of relationship? 

Why do we long for relationship? 

What is the love, life, Spirit and essence of God

 God is non-stop love with or without us. 

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¹The only reason we can feel loved-valued is that we are like God who is a community of love among and within the Father, Son, and Spirit. He is thereby the most lovely and valuable of all beings. This triune God created us like Himself so we could partake of and delight in Him.