Love

[Classik]

'Twas love indeed, like Jethro says. He loved wrongly and sinned

 

[Blev]

Eph 3:17
<dir> That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,


</dir>

Romans 5:5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

 

[Eugene]

That's a hard one. (maybe for one's wife/husband/child....tho it's rare these days, kinda)

That's exactly what Jesus was asking Peter in John 21:15-17. Do you just like me (agapao love) or really love me (phileo love). Sometimes like Peter, we may have to distress over it to really know.

 

[Aardverk]

Love (of a person) is wanting to make their life better in any way you can. That means putting them first and sacrificing yourself for them if the need arises.

Parents will recognize that love for their children. They will do anything to feed and protect them.

A truly loving husband and wife will sometimes even 'compete' to be self sacrificing. For example, she will go on that boating holiday knowing she will be sea-sick because she loves him. He will suffer the heat of a Mexico holiday because he loves her and neither may let their discomfort be known because they are trying to make their loved one's life better.

It can backfire though! We once bought some very expensive furniture because I thought my wife liked it and she thought I liked it. It was some years before we found out that neither of us liked it.

Desire is completely different. I desire all sorts of gorgeous young women but I would never dream of doing anything about it because I love my wife.

Yearning or being 'madly in love' is simply a great desire for a person because you think they will make you happy. It is obviously very painful but it is not love and it often leads to misery and divorce. Bizarrely, being 'madly in love' is almost the opposite of love.

 

[Classik]

Love (of a person) is wanting to make their life better in any way you can. That means putting them first and sacrificing yourself for them if the need arises.

Parents will recognize that love for their children. They will do anything to feed and protect them.

A truly loving husband and wife will sometimes even 'compete' to be self sacrificing. For example, she will go on that boating holiday knowing she will be sea-sick because she loves him. He will suffer the heat of a Mexico holiday because he loves her and neither may let their discomfort be known because they are trying to make their loved one's life better.

It can backfire though! We once bought some very expensive furniture because I thought my wife liked it and she thought I liked it. It was some years before we found out that neither of us liked it.

Desire is completely different. I desire all sorts of gorgeous young women but I would never dream of doing anything about it because I love my wife.

Yearning or being 'madly in love' is simply a great desire for a person because you think they will make you happy. It is obviously very painful but it is not love and it often leads to misery and divorce. Bizarrely, being 'madly in love' is almost the opposite of love.

Madly in love. Hehe!
You disappeared. Did you travel to Gaza? :dunno

 

[Jethro Bodine]

You sound as if you have that kind of Love!

I'm learning, lol, I'm learning.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Real Love is doing what is best for the other person's spiritual good.

They say there are several kinds of love, but only God's love is real love IMO.

God's kind of love, agape, is the only love that desires another person by wanting no harm to come to them by what we do. And because of that it is able to forgo it's own rights and well being, and desires, even it's needs, in the interest of someone's else's legitimate good.

All the other loves, where the desire for something or someone is conditional on some attribute of that thing or person that is beneficial to us (not automatically a bad or forbidden thing), work best when governed by God's love. That means when we can't have someone or something we want the benefit of, agape keeps us from causing harm because we can't have want we want.

 

[Classik]

Brick&Lace Album cover: Love is wicked!

Not just that, love is envious! Love is dangerous and wicked...may need violence to tame cool.


How do we reconcile these? :dunno

I think it's true and may be justified.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Brick&Lace Album cover: Love is wicked!

Not just that, love is envious! Love is dangerous and wicked...may need violence to tame cool.


How do we reconcile these? :dunno

I think it's true and may be justified.

Reconcile them with what? God's love? They can't be.

A love that is characterized by envy, danger, and wickedness is selfish human love--the love that seeks things and people out for consumption, and when it isn't allowed to consume gets angry, envious, violent, etc. :angry:

This is what all humans are by nature. Yeah, it can be tamed to some degree, but this fundamental nature of man to have a love that takes and demands without regard to the good of others is always there. Only in Christ is man given a new nature to grow up into, the nature of God himself, that regards the good of others and does not carelessly consume people, harming them in the selfish desire for fulfillment and satisfaction.

 

[Classik]

Thanks again. I wouldn't want to use Christ in this instance. There was a mother who passed through fire to save the child from a burning building. That was love. She punished her body to save her child.

One may call it: being wicked to the body.

 

[Classik]

And you are right. For other instances...we take some selfish measures trying to protect what we cherrish. Wrong kind of love typically human - and CRUEL

 

[Blev]

And you are right. For other instances...we take some selfish measures trying to protect what we cherrish. Wrong kind of love typically human - and CRUEL

Its simply being carnal instead of following the Spirit.

 

[Aardverk]

Madly in love. Hehe!
You disappeared. Did you travel to Gaza? :dunno

Hi Classic - thanks for noticing.

I have been travelling again and sometimes even I am busy.

In a similar vein I thought you bid farewell a few months back but I'm glad to see you are still generating interesting threads.

love Aardverk

 

[Classik]

Hi Classic - thanks for noticing.

I have been travelling again and sometimes even I am busy.

In a similar vein I thought you bid farewell a few months back but I'm glad to see you are still generating interesting threads.

love Aardverk

That was an April Fool thread. (I can't find the thread). :D

 

[Fedusenko]

You guys really complicate one of the simplest things. I have yet to see one concise definition of what you think love is, not a comparison to another word or a passage that includes word. It is so simple...

 

[Aardverk]

You guys really complicate one of the simplest things. I have yet to see one concise definition of what you think love is, not a comparison to another word or a passage that includes word. It is so simple...

:adore The problem is that it really is not simple.

Even in this thread there are totally different definitions of love. :twoloveIf we all understood the same meaning of the word, there would be no need for discussion.

:muchlove Love seems to be an emotion (or is it an instinct) that really does mean different things to different people. If we agree that understanding each other is a good thing, and I presume we do, then it is a subject worthy of discussion.

What do you think love is Fedusenko? :heart

 

[Jethro Bodine]

You guys really complicate one of the simplest things. I have yet to see one concise definition of what you think love is, not a comparison to another word or a passage that includes word. It is so simple...

For us Christians it is very simple:

"10 Love does no harm to its neighbor." (Romans 13:10 NIV)

I'm convinced this is the Bible's definition of love. It needs little to no explanation, but it is worthy of explanation in many words.

Right from the start it has amazed me how simple yet profound agape is...and equally amazing how many Christians are almost completely oblivious to it's truth and how it is the end-all of the Christian faith. The church certainly doesn't major in it. It's rarely taught at length, and when it is taught it is taught in a shallow spiritless kind of way. If we made the main thing the main thing in the Christian faith we'd look a lot different than we do now.

 

[Fedusenko]

:adore The problem is that it really is not simple.

Even in this thread there are totally different definitions of love. :twoloveIf we all understood the same meaning of the word, there would be no need for discussion.

:muchlove Love seems to be an emotion (or is it an instinct) that really does mean different things to different people. If we agree that understanding each other is a good thing, and I presume we do, then it is a subject worthy of discussion.

What do you think love is Fedusenko? :heart

Ardvark, please don't take offense to singling out your post. I was impressed when I first started reading your post and still am for the most part. Many of the problems with Christians is they do not properly understand what love actually is, just as Jethro posted. Even you admit that we have multiple definitions of love. How can that be? Isn't our source all the same? If it were then we would not be in confusion, right?

To be trite, the entire Bible is one about love, our failings in it as well as our triumphs through it, and God's consistent love. While I don't recall a single passage in the bible that defines love, the closest being "love is patience, kind and a whole hooplah of other nice things". I am not interested in a comparison or a how to. That doesn't define love. I can be 'kind' and give you change when you ask for it, but if it is obvious that you will spend it on destructive behaviours, then how is that love?

The biggest misleading idea about love is that it is an emotion. When the Messiah said to love your neighbor, did He mean to feel warm to them? How do you 'feel' love while having a heated argument in town hall about taxation or their child trampling your flowers? Don't get caught sinning when you don't 'feel' goodly towards them! Nah, that is simply a chemical imbalance, just like lust, anger, the modern understand of happiness. Your body can't keep that up. It requires homeostasis. Christ wouldn't ask you to do something you were not able to do. Love is NOT a fleeting emotion.

Love is eros. Rape is eros too. Rape and love are not the same, duh, so eros and love aren't either. How about phileo? I can show affection, just like our bright city philidelphia, but at as a ploy to steal your money. Phileo is an action, but does not describe intent. Storge is that motherly 'love', but that is just a description of the type of affection that is common with a mother and her offspring. How often is a mother selfishly motivated because of that affection, say to keep the kids from going to a far away college, having a healthy play outside, or denying a child's adventure because a slight risk in mild harm? Is over-protection love? Well, it definitely stunts growth..

Those words can't be love because they can be other things too. The love I understand that God speaks of is pure and unadultured. Most of all, it is simple. Love is the intentional, selfless action to benefit another. Sometimes it means that it is just second nature, other times it means that it is very deliberate. It always means that it is thoughtful. It strips our spirit of the carnal desires and puts the needs of others on the same plane as your own.

 

[Classik]

You guys really complicate one of the simplest things. I have yet to see one concise definition of what you think love is, not a comparison to another word or a passage that includes word. It is so simple...

Exactly what I was looking for. I appreciates the replys tho.

 

[Classik]

Ardvark, please don't take offense to singling out your post. I was impressed when I first started reading your post and still am for the most part. Many of the problems with Christians is they do not properly understand what love actually is, just as Jethro posted. Even you admit that we have multiple definitions of love. How can that be? Isn't our source all the same? If it were then we would not be in confusion, right? To be trite, the entire Bible is one about love, our failings in it as well as our triumphs through it, and God's consistent love. While I don't recall a single passage in the bible that defines love, the closest being "love is patience, kind and a whole hooplah of other nice things". I am not interested in a comparison or a how to. That doesn't define love. I can be 'kind' and give you change when you ask for it, but if it is obvious that you will spend it on destructive behaviours, then how is that love? The biggest misleading idea about love is that it is an emotion. When the Messiah said to love your neighbor, did He mean to feel warm to them? How do you 'feel' love while having a heated argument in town hall about taxation or their child trampling your flowers? Don't get caught sinning when you don't 'feel' goodly towards them! Nah, that is simply a chemical imbalance, just like lust, anger, the modern understand of happiness. Your body can't keep that up. It requires homeostasis. Christ wouldn't ask you to do something you were not able to do. Love is NOT a fleeting emotion. Love is eros. Rape is eros too. Rape and love are not the same, duh, so eros and love aren't either. How about phileo? I can show affection, just like our bright city philidelphia, but at as a ploy to steal your money. Phileo is an action, but does not describe intent. Storge is that motherly 'love', but that is just a description of the type of affection that is common with a mother and her offspring. How often is a mother selfishly motivated because of that affection, say to keep the kids from going to a far away college, having a healthy play outside, or denying a child's adventure because a slight risk in mild harm? Is over-protection love? Well, it definitely stunts growth.. Those words can't be love because they can be other things too. The love I understand that God speaks of is pure and unadultured. Most of all, it is simple. Love is the intentional, selfless action to benefit another. Sometimes it means that it is just second nature, other times it means that it is very deliberate. It always means that it is thoughtful. It strips our spirit of the carnal desires and puts the needs of others on the same plane as your own.

Excellent!