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What is Love?

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Susannah

Susannah
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I know we are saved by grace alone, but I agree with James that faith, without works, is dead. There is also the passage in the Bible about how what we do for others is how we serve Christ. So let's talk about the many ways to express love in our lives.

Love is not just an emotion.

It is an activity.
It is a commitment.
It is charity.
It is reaching out out to others.
It is obedience.
It is our sacrifices.
It is our strength.
It is our responsibility.
It is our tolerance for others.
It is our compassion and kindness.
It is our guide.
It is our path.
It is our life's purpose and ambition.
God's commandment
It is humility . . . and much more.

Love is not . . .

Selfishness
Judgement
Greed
Cruelty
Intolerance
Fear
Dishonesty
Abuse

The Highest form of love is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Matthew 22 This means that love is you top priority in life. Note that this is not a suggestion but a commandment. Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love.

The next Highest form of love is to love your neighbor as yourself. [Not more; not less] When asked, "Who is our neighbor?" Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan who was of another religion and race. This is an important caveat.

Please do not confuse romantic love with agape love. Romantic love is fickle and even dangerous at times. It can become addictive. It can, but not always, be a tool for both God and Satan to have their will done. Combined with platonic love and agape love, it can be very pleasurable but very fragile. Do not build a house on such a shaky foundation. By house I mean marriage.


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Nice to see you here Susannah posting a thread
Love is humility . . . and much more.

Susannah, it's very nice to see you here posting your own thread. I read it and agree with everything you said.

I have come to the conclusion it will take some time for the topic of GODLY LOVE to gain any traction here on this forum, or any forum, as men here, and many times women too, want to "JOUST", and meet in the "heat of battle" and don't see love as a topic they can "sink there teeth into and prepare for "verbal combat," which isn't the reason we're to be here, but they seem to be blind to that, and would rather prove how capable they are at "VERSE BOMBING" each other.

I have a movie called "JESUS" with Jeremy Sisto, made in 1999. Yes, it's on VHS tapes :yes.

In a scene in the movie, Jesus is talking to Peter about "GODLY LOVE", and even though it's not in the Bible, as they took a few liberties, I think what they portrayed Jesus saying was very appropriate for the conversation Jesus and Peter were having.

Jesus asked Peter if he was man enough to love in a GODLY WAY.

I think for men especially, it's a wonderful question, as I don't see many men putting much VALUE in GODLY LOVE, and in doing so they believe themselves saved by their knowledge, but they are actually TOTALLY AND FOREVER LOST, in their complete misunderstanding of the scriptures WITHOUT GODLY LOVE.

Without Godly LOVE being applied throughout their lives as a way of life from their heart, there words become a smoke of falsehoods, and they have NO SALVATION.
It's a sad truth, but they have made their choices and are "Blind guides, leading the blind."

My name is OLIGOS
 
I don't see many men putting much VALUE in GODLY LOVE, and in doing so they believe themselves saved by their knowledge, but they are actually TOTALLY AND FOREVER LOST, in their complete misunderstanding of the scriptures WITHOUT GODLY LOVE.

That do seem to be the crux of it. But in defense of men, very few women of marriageable age value Godly love. They want no part of it because on another level, they want ravished as a woman (Romantic Love). I've heard women act like Godly love is some sort of weakness. Ah, my kingdom for a Proverbs 31 Wife!
 
That do seem to be the crux of it. But in defense of men, very few women of marriageable age value Godly love. They want no part of it because on another level, they want ravished as a woman (Romantic Love). I've heard women act like Godly love is some sort of weakness. Ah, my kingdom for a Proverbs 31 Wife!


Your so right Edward, and also in defense of men, many Christian ??? women are looking for money and security in a man, rather than security in God, along with the other "amenities of marriage" with a good responsible Christian man.
Seen it too many times to count. No love just a need to be taken care of, and the marriages didn't last very long.
Times are strange.
Glad I'm "OLD." :hysterical

My name is OLIGOS
 
godly love is hard to come by, even in churches. -eek- some Barna studies would indicate that about 1/3 of church goers have the basics of a Christian worldview. ugh. well...that's about 33% more than 0, so...good?

what's interesting (not the best word choice, but I"ll go with it...) about all this is that the secular world offers up notions of 'love' that, at their highest and finest are a lot like godly love...

but without Christ, without God...-shrug- ... it all seems to fall flat. to be expected, I suppose.
 
Without Godly Love it is impossible to please God. The 2 commandments are both about love. The whole bible is about love.
We must pray for it, to become true disciples of Jesus. Love was even put above faith.
Man, woman or child can be given love if they truly want it.
Feel the love, feel the joy.
 
Without Godly Love it is impossible to please God. The 2 commandments are both about love. The whole bible is about love.
We must pray for it, to become true disciples of Jesus. Love was even put above faith.
Man, woman or child can be given love if they truly want it.
Feel the love, feel the joy.
:thumbsup

Boy are you right Tessa
When I first became a believer, I read 1st Cor 13, the love chapter, and did my best on my own to be loving, but failed over and over.

I finally gave up trying on my own and went to God in prayer, as you said above Tessa, and surrendered that part of my life to God and told Him I needed help, as trying to do this on my own, LOVING HIM AND OTHERS wasn't working.

God was so BEAUTIFUL in the way He started working in my life.
I still had failures from time to time, but this time the Holy Spirit was there to help me learn from my mistakes.
The best part was the Holy Spirit knew my heart, and that I was serious and determined to love GODS WAY, no matter how long it took
I'll never be perfect at it, but I really have learned to love God and enjoy people, Gods way, and see the good in most anyone even when the have attitude problems - that's the part God really surprised me with.
I've has several wonderful victories in the last 20 years or so, and there is such confidence now in loving people, because I know that God is the AUTHOR of His SPECIAL KIND OF LOVE, I still wouldn't have if i hadn't prayed and asked for it.

There is such a huge other worldly difference between GODS SUPER -NATURAL LOVE, and anything man can try to create on his own.

God bless us all as we grow together in GODS SUPER-NATURAL LOVE.
My name is OLIGOS[/QUOTE]
 
That is so true Oligos.
When Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him he said he would die for Him. Then he denied even knowing Jesus. All because of fear. But after Peter received Yhe Holy Spirit, wow what a change. He did of course die for Jesus in the end.
 
I like to say we are all imperfectly perfect and sitting in the shadow of God's perfection. Jeff told me that were perfected through suffering. So I take Glory and even they ugly times. God bless you all!
 
The FEW PARTICIPANTS of us here out of over 8000 members is sad to me.

The greatest topic in the bible and Gods whole purpose for creating this world and all of mankind, and almost no response by the masses.

That speaks pretty clearly to me the priorities of the majority of even Christian people, just as I have seen and heard in every church and bible group I've ever been to.

Matthew 7: 14, speaks about the FEW who will be in God's kingdom, is not only clear, but makes a very visable, 3-dimentional picture of everyday life in the lives of most who claim to be Christians, but discredit themselves by being unloving, harsh, and uncaring to those around them, who would love to be cared about..

For me it's heartbreaking because we all know what the end for them will be like, but it's fabulous being here with the FEW" who do understand, and will stand before Christ at the end.

I love being here with all of you.
You put "BOUNCE" in my step :clap , and give me energy and hope for the future.

My name is OLIGOS
 
Let's start a club. We'll call it the Joy Love Club. I did this in 2004 on another forum and now it has 7,000 members. We three will be the founding members and we will pray for people to join us. Let's keep posting to Inspire others.

Happiness is a worldly emotion that comes when things are going out way. Joy is what we feel when we love God and its eternal. lt never ceases. ❤
 
Let's start a club. We'll call it the Joy Love Club. I did this in 2004 on another forum and now it has 7,000 members. WE three will be the founding members and we will pray for people to join us. Let's keep posting to Inspire others.

Happiness is a worldly emotion that comes when things are going out way. Joy is what we feel when we love God and its eternal. lt never ceases. ❤


Susannah anything like this only has one source and it has to be God, not any of us.
And you have to be careful with this sort of thing because people will want to make something out of it, that it was never meant to be. Satan is always there waiting to attack.

This isn't for me because I'm doing this forum, but I can definetly pray for you if you get approval from ADMIN..

I'd suggest you talk to the administrators and get their feedback, as I did before this forum on LOVE started, and get their approval before you try to move forward.

You need to get their help and support, just like I did to get started.

You can't start something like this on your own without the administration being involved.
This is an owned site, and we have to be in subjection to their desires for this site.
We don't have the freedom to just set out on our own and do something like this without talking to someone like stovebolts, and for_his_glory, and JLB .

I think it needs to be separate from this forum on love, as the forum here is more about sharing ideas and discussions, and I'd like to see it stay focused that way.
That was the plan from the start, for GOD to be in charge, and if people want to be here, it's because GOD brought them here for that purpose.
Remember, this forum has nothing to do with me, I am just a tool used by God to fulfill His plan through me, and it should be the same for everyone.
I hope that works alright for you.

My name is OLIGOS
 
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The FEW PARTICIPANTS of us here out of over 8000 members is sad to me.

The greatest topic in the bible and Gods whole purpose for creating this world and all of mankind, and almost no response by the masses.

That speaks pretty clearly to me the priorities of the majority of even Christian people, just as I have seen and heard in every church and bible group I've ever been to.

Matthew 7: 14, speaks about the FEW who will be in God's kingdom, is not only clear, but makes a very visable, 3-dimentional picture of everyday life in the lives of most who claim to be Christians, but discredit themselves by being unloving, harsh, and uncaring to those around them, who would love to be cared about..

For me it's heartbreaking because we all know what the end for them will be like, but it's fabulous being here with the FEW" who do understand, and will stand before Christ at the end.

I love being here with all of you.
You put "BOUNCE" in my step :clap , and give me energy and hope for the future.

My name is OLIGOS

The Lord taught me this stuff. When He told is in His Word to forgive others and bless our enemies...it wasn't some sort of impossible weirded out task that could only be pleasing to God...it was for our own good. Because when we do not forgive others we harbor bitterness within our heart and soul, and that damages us more than it does them. It inhibits spiritual growth. It inhibits rivers of living waters to from flowing through us. It stops the Love and Compassion that IS our (original) nature for we were created in God's image and likeness.

So if anyone is having trouble forgiving another, you are only hurting yourself.
 
[I recently expressed this on another thread, so I apologize for repeating it here.]

I have landed on thinking that love is simply the act of valuing/treasuring. God values us; that is Godly love. If we value another person, we are loving them. If I value God with all my heart, I will from my heart be concerned with what He thinks and will desire to act accordingly. If I value/treasure another person, my disposition toward them will look like 1 Cor 13.

I know of no way that a person can treasure others and yet be emotionally neutral toward them. So I think love is not an emotion, but it does not exist without generating emotion. It seems inconceivable as to how a person can treasure others and yet not act accordingly. So I think love is not a decision, but it does not exist without decisions/actions consistent with it.

Even though quite devoid of being lovable, God loves/treasures/values us. I believe He constantly demonstrates emotions and actions toward us consistent with that love. (He gave His only begotten son for us, His elect.) That is Godly love and our greatest grace.
 
[I recently expressed this on another thread, so I apologize for repeating it here.]

I have landed on thinking that love is simply the act of valuing/treasuring. God values us; that is Godly love. If we value another person, we are loving them. If I value God with all my heart, I will from my heart be concerned with what He thinks and will desire to act accordingly. If I value/treasure another person, my disposition toward them will look like 1 Cor 13.

I know of no way that a person can treasure others and yet be emotionally neutral toward them. So I think love is not an emotion, but it does not exist without generating emotion. It seems inconceivable as to how a person can treasure others and yet not act accordingly. So I think love is not a decision, but it does not exist without decisions/actions consistent with it.

Even though quite devoid of being lovable, God loves/treasures/values us. I believe He constantly demonstrates emotions and actions toward us consistent with that love. (He gave His only begotten son for us, His elect.) That is Godly love and our greatest grace.
Amen !
 
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