Love

I used to think love was an emotion we create when we want to get closer to another individual we are attracted to. The problem with this theory is that this 'love' is based upon the emotion we are experiencing at a given time. It is conditional. However, in Biblical review I found that love, in it's purest form, is anthing but that.

1 Corinthians 13:4 - 13 (NRSV) "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things (this does not mean gullible, but is more an expression of hope and faith), hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends .... and now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."

This is indeed the purest form of love. This love is not self-seeking, does not revolve around the self or perceived emotional experience. This love is free from any stipulations and prejudices.

I think a problem that we have in our society is that not many of us really know what true love is. Many time we are told from our parents, the media, friends, and other sources that love is conditional .. that we should only love other when they love us. How does our society often define 'love'? When people spend money on us .. it is love. When people have intercourse with us .. it is love. When people say they love us .. then it must be love. These are all very sad reasons to declare true love for another. All of these types of 'love' are conditional. When the money has run out .. does that mean love has run out as well? When our lover is through with us and has no more sexual desire for us .. does that mean love is over as well. When someone tells us they love us and we believe it .. does that mean that when they no longer tell us that they love us then love has ended? Remember .. true love never ends. True love does not insist on its own way, true love bears all things, true love hopes all things, true love endures all.

Now, enduring all things does not mean that true love endures love that is not true love but in itself a mockery of true love. For example, when a boyfriend or girlfriend physically abuses you it is not a practice or expression of true love, thus since it is not true love the laws regarding true love do not apply to the situation. I urge anyone in a physically abusive relationship to get help. Enduring, from the Biblical example, is speaking more of a long term loving relationship .. it loves regardless of income, of physical health, etc.

True love is complete and finalized .. no stipulations are placed on true love, true love is not self-seeking, or in other words true love is not loving another because they can provide something in your life that you do not have, filling a void so to speak. True love is sincere, it rejoices in truth.

Unfortunately, far too many people think of love in childish ways. We view our lover as a parent or santa claus figure .. 'show me you love me, buy me this, tell me this'. How many times guys have you ever heard "if you really love me, you would buy me flowers." How many times girls have you heard "if you truly love me, you would have sex with me." Both of these expressions are self-serving, both insist on their own way. Neither is an expression of true love.

1 Corinthians 13:11 (NRSV) "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways."

We need to flee our childish thinkings on love. We need to say that love is not what others can do for us .. but what of our lives we can share with others. We need to realize that love should not be based on 'if's', but instead love needs to be unconditional, bearing, it needs to endure good times and bad, true love never fails, and if what you perceive as 'love' does fail, then it was not true love in the first place and thuswise doomed to fail.

Now, of course to each their own religious belief, and in no way am I trying to 'force' my religion on anyone else, as I am sure someone who is reading this is sure to misperceive ... however these Biblical guidelines for love are truth in themselves, regardless of whether or not one believes in God or the Bible. I guarantee you that if you practice true love, which is love in it's purest form, which is the type of love we are told about in 1 Corinthians 13 that this love will never fail, and if you practice this type of love in your relationships with other they will be much better off. Try it for yourself.

Thread 2:

Why must it be that when you are in love with someone it DOES end... maybe YOUR love for that other someone doesnt end but THE love ends...the reciprocity...the BEING A COUPLE... Its so odd... cause even if BOTH keep loving eachother maybe it ends cause one of them dies, or maybe one has to go away FAR FAR away... and *you can make it last forever* but its difficoult if the other one doesnt want to make it last...isn´t it? Plus what is forever? Does ANYTHING last "forever"... *love solves everything* but at the same time it complicates our life as well... well...maybe its not LOVE that complicates it but US thinking that LOVE IS complicated when its not...We ARE here to love but *its hard luck when no one understands your love* specially if the one to not understand is the one you love... How do we know we are in love... butterflies in our stomaches??...Why does it have to hurt so much¿?