““It is essential to love that it be, not a focus of two persons on each other, but of two persons on the same thing external to them both. Although it has always been on offer, God's love cannot really be experienced unless or until one works side by side with him at transforming the world--unless or until one has confronted real affliction with him ("suffer[ed] with him,' Paul says in Romans 8:17) while tackling the task of remodeling the world (in what Paul calls, again in Romans 8:17, being "joint-heirs with Christ"). Love, in other words, has to be understood as more than a mere emotion; it is a way of being together in the world or, better, a way of working together to change the world. What begins as a kind of instrumentality--I hope only to be a tool in God's hands--eventually becomes a very real partnership, ideally bound by covenant.””
![“Romans 8:28: We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose. AMP” quote by Cindy Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ac3/cindy-jacobs-48399_work-together_romans-8-28-we-are-assured-and-know-that_2615428.jpg)
