The members of the latter group are nearer by approach.
But then there are those who freely, continually, and wholeheartedly seek their “final union” with God. Everyone shares these traits, exceptions withheld, but that is where the likeness ends. Nearness-by-likeness is defined by humans being rational, free-willed individuals that resemble God. He labels these “nearness-by-likeness” and “nearness-by-approach,” respectively. Next, Lewis distinguishes being near to God in image and being near to God in approach. A mother gives her Gift love while her child has a Need love kind of relationship with her. Need love often cannot give love back to the Provider, but that does not make it any less loving, according to Lewis. Need love is built into the human condition. Lewis notes that this is the case because humans are incomplete. We cannot provide Him with anything, but we require, we necessitate, His Gift love.
Need love, in contrast, is a kind of love that displays dependence and necessity upon another entity. And if we want to be more like God, we are to give Gift love to others in the same ways that God and Jesus do. In fact, Lewis argues that Gift love resembles the image of God ( imago Dei). God is perfect and is not for want, therefore this love is a gift from Him to us with no expectations. Gift love is love that is given or provided freely, unconditionally, unwearied, and without any expectation of return Lewis characterizes this as Divine Love because this is a kind of love that we receive from God (the most gracious and providential Being). In what follows, I’ll provide a multi-segmented summary of Lewis’s treatment of Love from a philosophical perspective. Lewis begins by differentiating between two potential functions of love: Gift love and Need love. Lewis wrote a fascinating and truly insightful philosophical treatise into the four key forms or versions of what we in the English-speaking world would simply refer to as ‘Love.’ He did this by drawing upon the vast richness of the literary world, especially those tales woven during the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period.
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