The short answer
Give and take action is the Divine Principle's name for the reciprocal exchange between two beings that generates the energy every being needs to exist, grow, and multiply. When two paired elements — mind and body, stamen and pistil, husband and wife — share a common purpose and give to and receive from one another, they enter give and take action, and that interaction is what keeps them alive and moving toward their goal. As the Exposition of the Divine Principle explains, this interaction “generates all the forces the entity needs for existence, multiplication, and action.” (Exposition of the Divine Principle)
This is one of the most quietly profound ideas in the Divine Principle, because it says that relationship, not isolation, is the basic condition of existence. Nothing that lives, lives alone. A thing exists and flourishes only as it gives and receives, and the whole universe is built as a network of such exchanges. This article explains what give and take action is, shows how it operates at every level of creation, connects it to the goal of God's ideal family, and follows it up to its highest form — love — before asking what the Fall did to it and how restoration heals it.
What give and take action is
Give and take action begins with two elements in a relationship: a subject and an object. For their interaction to happen, they must first form a common base — a shared purpose or center that unites them. When that common base is established, an exchange begins: the subject gives to the object and receives from it in return, and the object does the same. This is not a one-way transaction but a genuine mutual flow, and it is this flow that produces the energy the two beings need to live, grow, and accomplish their purpose.
Underlying all of this is what the Divine Principle calls universal prime energy — the fundamental energy, flowing from God, that sustains all existence. Universal prime energy is the deep source; give and take action is how that energy becomes active in a specific relationship, producing the particular forces a being needs. The order matters: a common base allows universal prime energy to stir give and take action, and give and take action in turn generates life and force. This is why the Divine Principle insists that existence is fundamentally relational and God-sourced. Nothing generates its own life in isolation; life arises through relationship, and relationship is sustained by the energy of God.
Give and take everywhere you look
Once named, give and take action becomes visible at every level of reality. Within your own body, life is sustained by give and take between arteries and veins, and between inhaling and exhaling — a constant reciprocal rhythm without which the body would die. Within a person, the whole self functions through give and take between mind and body, the mind directing and the body carrying out. Within society, a family exists through give and take between its members, and larger communities through give and take between individuals and groups. The Divine Principle teaches that every being that exists, and every action that occurs, does so through some form of give and take.
This gives a strikingly unified picture of the world. The same dynamic that keeps an atom stable — the give and take between positive and negative — keeps a marriage alive, keeps a body breathing, and keeps a society functioning. Creation is not a collection of isolated objects but a vast web of reciprocal relationships, all sustained by the energy of God. And it reveals something about how God designed things to flourish: not by hoarding or self-sufficiency, but by giving and receiving. The healthiest cell, the healthiest marriage, and the healthiest society are all the ones in which give and take flows freely. This relational design is the same insight that stands behind God's dual characteristics, where every created thing carries paired qualities made to unite.
The engine behind the four position foundation
Give and take action is the moving part inside the Divine Principle's picture of God's ideal — the four position foundation. That foundation describes a completed family of love: God at the center, a husband and wife united in him, and children born of their love. But what actually holds those four positions together and keeps them alive is give and take action. God pours love into the husband and wife; they return love to God and give it to one another; together they give love to their children, who return it. Love circulates continuously among the four positions, and it is this circulation — this give and take — that makes the whole structure stable and life-giving.
The Divine Principle also teaches that give and take moves toward union and multiplication: “the goal of give and take action lies in subject and object uniting so that they develop into a higher being.” A husband and wife who give and receive love centered on God do not merely maintain their relationship; they are drawn into deeper unity, and from that unity new life and greater love are born. This is why give and take is described as an engine rather than a mere exchange: it does not simply preserve what exists but generates something greater. To understand give and take action is therefore to understand how the four position foundation actually works — and why the family is meant to be a source of ever-multiplying love.
Love as the highest give and take
The most important thing about give and take action is that its highest and purest form is love. Most exchanges in the physical world are, in a sense, zero-sum: what one side gives, it no longer has. But love is different. When two people centered on God give love to and receive love from one another, the giving does not deplete them — it multiplies joy, deepens the bond, and generates more love than was there before. This is the paradox at the heart of the Divine Principle's vision: in the give and take of true love, everyone ends up with more.
This is what God designed creation for. The whole apparatus of subject and object, common base and universal prime energy, exists so that beings might enter into give and take centered on God's love — and human beings, made in God's image, are meant to be the crown of that design. It explains why loving relationships are the most life-giving experiences a person can have, and why isolation and self-centeredness feel like a kind of slow starvation: we were made to live by giving and receiving love, and we wither without it. The longing to love and be loved is not weakness; it is the Divine Principle's give and take action expressing itself in the human heart, and it points toward what true love actually is.
What the Fall broke, and what restoration mends
If give and take action is how life and love are meant to flow, the Fall can be understood as a catastrophic change not in whether we give and take, but in what we center it on. The Divine Principle teaches that human beings were meant to give and receive centered on God. After the Fall, give and take became centered on self instead. The machinery still runs — human beings still relate, exchange, and interact constantly — but with self rather than God at the center, give and take produces conflict, exploitation, and broken relationships rather than life and love. So much of human misery is simply give and take gone wrong: relationships that take without giving, or give in order to control.
This is why restoration, in the Divine Principle, is not about escaping relationship but about re-centering it on God. God's long work in history aims to restore give and take action to its original center, so that relationships once again generate love instead of harm. Every genuinely God-centered relationship — a marriage, a friendship, a family — participates in that restoration, becoming a small place where give and take flows the way it was meant to. This offers real hope for anyone weary of broken relationships: the problem is not that we give and take, but where our giving and taking is centered, and that is exactly what God is working to heal. The larger shape of that healing is traced in God's plan of restoration.
Frequently asked questions
What is give and take action?
It is the Divine Principle's term for the reciprocal exchange between a subject and an object that generates the energy every being needs to exist, grow, and multiply. When two paired elements form a common base centered on a shared purpose and give to and receive from one another, they enter give and take action — the basic dynamic of all life and relationship.
What is a common base and universal prime energy?
A common base is the shared purpose or center two beings hold together, which makes give and take possible. Universal prime energy is the fundamental energy, flowing from God, that sustains all existence. When a subject and object form a common base, universal prime energy stirs give and take between them, generating the forces they need to live and act.
Where can we see give and take action?
Everywhere. The body lives through give and take between arteries and veins and between inhaling and exhaling; a person functions through give and take between mind and body; families and societies exist through give and take between their members. Every being that exists and every action that occurs does so through some form of give and take.
How does give and take action relate to love?
Love is the highest and purest form of give and take action. When two people centered on God give and receive love, the exchange does not deplete them but multiplies joy and life. God designed creation for exactly this, which is why loving relationships are the most life-giving experiences human beings can have.
How did the Fall affect give and take action?
The Fall did not stop give and take action but changed its center. Instead of giving and receiving centered on God, fallen human beings give and take centered on self, producing conflict and broken relationships rather than life and love. Restoration is God's work of re-centering give and take on himself, so relationships generate love again.