Understanding Love from a Scriptural Perspective
Love, as depicted in scriptures, emphasizes directing one's affection first towards God. By loving God with all one's heart, soul, and strength, one can extend love to others. Jesus highlighted the importance of loving God above all else, as any love greater than that towards God may hinder the true essence of love. Different types of love, including natural and gained love, are discussed, showcasing how love evolves in various relationships.
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What is Love? Love is to be directed first to God... If we wish to understand love in its true scriptural foundations we must set before us - and understand - the following truth: Love should be directed to God, before anyone or anything else Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength..." (Deut 6:5)
So then, if this love to God is from the whole heart. Is there any room left for any other love? How can we love anything else, if the whole heart is for God? The only answer is that our love for everyone and everything is through our love for God. When we have given the whole heart to God, within our love to God, we love everyone. That is why when asked about the greatest commandment, Christ replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is likeit: Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:37-39)
Why did He say, "The second is like it"? Because it is through the love of God... It is part of it... It is not separate from the first commandment... Hence, any love outside the love of God is a unsatisfactory love. What if this (second) love was greater than our love for God? Jesus says, Anyone who loves their father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matt 10:37)
Any love that is greater than the love of God, prefers a person or a thing more than God Himself. We can therefore label it as "A unsatisfactory love", because it interferes with the love of God. It is a love that is stronger than the love of God!!! Is that appropriate?! In this situation, the whole heart is not given to God (and hence breaks the first commandment). This unsatisfactory love" becomes a "stranger" in your heart. A stranger never dwells in one place forever. If you want to love someone or something forever, make sure this love is through the love of God; i.e. fulfill the first commandment first, then you will be able to include the second love through your love to God...
Types of Love Natural love such as the love between parents and their children. That is why God resembled His love to us as the natural paternal love: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1) Gained love such as the love of friends, relatives, associates, or the love between an engaged or a married couple. Love may develop in stages. It may start out as collaboration, and then progress to assistantship or friendship. Collaboration is a relationship between two or more individuals unified by a joint objective or project, which may lead to a unified thought (mind), which may lead to friendship.
Admiration vs. Love A relationship may involve a feeling of admiration. Admiration is different from love. You may admire a sports champion, but that does not mean you love him/her. You may admire an author. You like his thoughts and/or writing style, without having a personal relationship with the author. An intellectual relationship may develop (that ties your thoughts with his/her thoughts), but this is still not love. If this relationship evolved into love, it will be love for his/her ideas and/or style, but not his/her person.
Love is the meeting/bonding of two hearts through the same feelings or emotions. In order for this to be a sacred love, these emotions should be within the sphere of the love of God; it should not contradict nor surpass it If love is one-sided only, there must be a problem (e.g. incompatibility), because love always gives birth to love [i.e. it will create a mutual feeling.] Love must bespiritual, wise and prudent, because there are certain kinds of "love" that cause trouble.
True love must be pure. Here, we can distinguish between love and lust. Love always wants to give, but lust always wants to take. Lust is: o Selfish o Does not care about the other person it "claims" to love o May imprison him/her in itself and limit his/her liberty to interact with others o May turn into a destructive jealously *It really is NOT true love. True love is known to be giving, even to the point of self-sacrifice.* Look at yourself and your relationship with the opposite sex. Is it a relationship of love or lust?!
Qualities of Love Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
It is simple Without God, you don t have Love. Love does not exist without God, and God does not exist without Love. They are One together. As the Apostle St. John says in 1 John 4:8, Whoeverdoes not love does not know God, because God IS love
Qualities of God If God IS love, and Love is described in 1stCorinthians 13:4, then let us get to know God God - Is patient & kind. - does not envy nor boast nor is proud. - does not dishonor others, self-seek, anger easily, nor keep any record of our wrongs. - always bears all things, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. Most of all, - He does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. WOW! Isn t that amazing? To have a God with those qualities?
ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: The text, God so loved the world, shows such an intensity of love. For great indeed and infinite is the distance between the two. The immortal, the infinite majesty without beginning or end loved those who were but dust and ashes, who were loaded with ten thousand sins but remained ungrateful even as they constantly offended him. This is who he loved. For God did not give a servant, or an angel or even an archangel but his only begotten Son. And yet no one would show such anxiety even for his own child as God did for his ungrateful servants. He laid down his life for us and poured forth his precious blood for our sakes even though there is nothing good in us while we do not even pour out our money for our own sake and neglect him who died for us when he is naked and a stranger.
LOVE IS A GRACE FROM GOD Romans 5:5 (NKJV) 5Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. St. Augustine: That God may be loved, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, not by the free choice whose spring is in ourselves but through the Holy Spirit, who is given to us. (The Spirit and the Letter 5.3) St. Augustine: It is through love that we are conformed to God, and being so conformed and made like to him, and set apart from the world, we are no longer confounded by those things which should be subject to us. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. (The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 1.13.23) Love changes all of creation Virgin Mary is full of love because she is full of grace
HOW LOVE IS BIRTHED - SATISFACTION FROM GOD S LOVE 1. Satisfaction from God s love 1 John 4:10 (NKJV) 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God loved us unconditionally Likewise, we must love all in the same manner 2. When we begin to grasp God s love we ll be able to love others 3. God s love in forgiveness 4. Meditation in Christ s Incarnation & Crucifixion 5. Value God s love St. John Cassian: The perfect love with which God first loved us will come into our hearts, for our faith tells us that this prayer of our Savior will not be in vain. (Conference 10.7)
HOW LOVE IS BIRTHED - SATISFACTION FROM GOD S LOVE John 17:26 (NKJV) 26And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. St. Augustine: But how else is the love with which the Father has loved the Son in us as well, except because of the fact that we are his members and are loved in him since he is loved in the totality of his person as both head and members? Therefore he added, and I in them, as if he were saying, Since I am also in them. For in one sense he is in us as in his temple. But in another sense, he is also in us because we are also [part of] him, since, when he became man and our head, we became his body. And so, the Savior s prayer is finished, his passion begins. Let us, therefore, also finish the present discourse, that we may treat his passion, as he grants us grace. (Tractates on the Gospel of John 111.6)
HOW LOVE IS BIRTHED - HUMILITY Through humility The prideful cannot love This person loves him or herself more than others The humble person helps the whole world Humble yourself to know how to love How to be humble Accept criticism
HOW LOVE IS BIRTHED - HUMILITY Obedience Accept advice Accept responsibility when you re at fault Thankfulness increases humility Discipleship increases humility Repentance is the gateway to humility Matthew 18:4 (NKJV) 4Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. St. John Chrysostom: And where will we find this humility? Go to the city of virtue, to the tents of the holy men, to the mountains, to the groves. There you may see this height of humility.
HOW LOVE IS BIRTHED PURE HEART Purity produces the environment for love to take form Not judging Be child-like in your thoughts Self-examine yourself and be watchful Senses Prayer Almsgiving gives purity Reading the Bible 1 Peter 1:22 (NKJV) 22Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, Matthew 5:8 (NKJV) 8Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. St. Augustine: To behold God is the end and purpose of all our loving activity.
