The particular word translated love in Galatians 5:22 appears over 100 times in the New Testament. This frequency of use suggests very strongly that it refers to a very important concept. In all its occurrences in the New Testament, this type of love appears most often as a command. However, it is also an obligatory character quality. If we have trusted the LORD Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, this quality we must manifest. The obligatory nature of this character trait for all Christians is seen in the following illustration. The LORD Jesus spoke to His disciples in Matthew 5:43,44,46 and He said:
Ye have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbor
and hate thy enemy, but I say unto you love your enemies, bless
them that hate you. Pray for them that despitefully use you. For
if ye love them who love you, what reward have you? Do not
even the tax collectors the same?
Love is given to us as a command in this passage. For example, the LORD Himself said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” How do we love ourselves? Many popular songs deal with a different type of love than what we have in focus. The kind of love that is emphasized in the popular songs is a physical, sensual type. The love of the popular songs involves kissing, caressing, and holding or touching. Sometimes this type of love is necessary and good, but it is not what Paul is talking about in our passage in Galatians. Do you love yourself by kissing the back of your hand and uttering the words “Oh, I love me!” No, you do not love yourself with words, you care for yourself. You have demonstrated that care throughout the day. When you first got out of bed today you groped around until you made your way to the bathroom. There you got a...
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...t impossible to be a comfort to someone who needs comforting. For this kind of love is, indeed, inexhaustible! The hymn I am referring to is The Love of God and the verse that expresses the inexhaustibility of this love says:
Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies with parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill and
Every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.
That love sent Jesus Christ to Calvary for you and me. It is that kind of love that Jesus displayed as He went about healing and teaching. It is that kind of love that God wants to be manifested in you and through you by the Holy Spirit, because that kind of love is a character trait of one who has been purchased by the blood of Christ and is living for Him.
It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for "God is Charity" (1 John 4:8)
There is one specific thing that shapes the world and effects every single person that inhabits it, that one thing is love. Many people believe that love is the one most important thing in the entire world and without it the world would be a completely different place. In the movie “All That Heaven Allows” directed by Douglas Sirk, love is the central emotion that connects all of the different plots together. There are many different cultural values that deal with love that are shown and tested throughout the film including, a mothers love for her children, the beliefs that love is blind, that love always prevails in the end and that love is simple. All of these cultural values and beliefs are displayed throughout the film right from the very
This conception of love can be traced back to the first chapters of the Bible, Genesis. Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden, eat the forbidden fruit and are forever outcast from paradise, forced to suffer. The puritans argued that, if God wishes us to suffer, who are we to go against his wishes. We are sinners, because of the Original Sin, and it was Eve who gav...
Sappho, who is very well the speaker and author of the poem, clearly recognizes the substantial impact that love creates in relation to the amount of happiness people experience. Those who are successful in the game love, whether it be by giving it or receiving it, are far happier than those who confront despair and rejection. Finding love means finding the acceptance, companionship, and most of all, happiness that everyone strives to receive in their lifetime. As a result, love becomes a weapon for power, superiority, and control.
Agape is the highest of the four types of love in the Bible. This term defines God’s immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind. It is the divine love that comes from God. Jesus Christ demonstrated this kind of love in its highest form (Zavada 2017). Many people may feel they show true Agape, but when it becomes terrifying they will stay away from this kind of love; however, it may come from meeting a stranger for the first time. Unfortunately, you don’t count your true friends until you find those who will show you Agape as it is believed Christ showed to his Father in Heaven. The true love between friends and family members usually ends at the level of Philia or Storge and only few will generate into Agape. For one to proclaim Agape without being misinterpreted, one needs to first show another love called Philautia, a Greek word for Self-love. Absolutely, you cannot share what you do not have. If you do not love yourself, you cannot love anyone else either. The only way to be content is to find that unconditional love within you. Only once you learn to love and understand yourself, will you be ready to search for the spiritual freedom of the Self (Sol
“Christianity Begins with the starling statement that the center of human reality is love” the central issue here is what love is, how the gospel of John brings to the Johnnie community? And how do we understand the Word “Love” and its reality. Obviously John portrays love as synonymous to Jesus the Son of God
...ing my fellow human beings with love I am in turn helping myself with love.
Love is arguably the most powerful emotion possessed by mankind; it is the impalpable bond that allows individuals to connect and understand one another. Pure love is directly related to divinity. Without love, happiness and prosperity become unreachable goals. An individual that possesses all the desired superficial objects in the world stands alone without the presence of love. For centuries love has been marveled by all that dare encounter it. Countless books and poems have been transcribed to explain the phenomenon of love, but love surpasses all intellectual explanations and discussions. Love is not a definition, but rather a thought, an idea. This idea, the idea of love, burns inside us all. Instinctually, every soul on Earth is
What pops into your mind when you hear the word ‘love?’ Do you think of a person who loved you or someone you’ve admired? We, as human beings, are made to love. We even distinguish love as family, romantic, and selfless love: also known as, storge, eros, and agape. As much as we desire to love others, we hold high values of being loved by others. Humanity’s great appreciation towards love is so great, it is even portrayed in fairy tales. Little Mermaid is a story about a mermaid who exchanges her beautiful voice to human legs so that she could be with her true love, Sleeping Beauty is a story about a prince who strives to fight against the evil witch in order to save his true love from a deep sleep, and Beauty and the Beast is about a young lady who falls in love with a Beast, solely because of his good virtue and character. The most influential book to humanity, the Bible, also carries the message of love through the gospel. God’s love for human being is purely displayed through the life of Jesus Christ: Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection. Could there be mere connections between the gospel, fairy tales, and humanity under the topic of love? Jeanne-Marie LePrince De Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast echoes the Evangelium by reflecting upon unconditional, sacrificial, and transformative love. Such love is demonstrated through Beauty’s action, motivation, and her relationship with others.
he Power of Love Love is a powerful emotion that affects everyone at some time in their lives. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, love is defined as a feeling of strong and constant affection for someone(1). Love can refer to the feelings between a couple in a romantic relationship, or it can refer to the affection one would have with a friend. When love is shown, each person cares about the other. Sometimes, love can be hypnotizing, causing one to do something they would not do normally.
What is love? I remember a time when “I love you” was the hardest phrase to say to the person you really had feelings for because you knew when you said those words it would change the course of your relationship forever. But what is the true meaning of love? “The dictionary defines love as a feeling of strong personal attach-ment induced by sympathetic understanding or by ties of kindred; ardent affection for one’s children; man’s adoration for God; strong liking; fondness; good will, al love of learning; love of country.” (Bell, pg. 10) According to Bell all of these definitions convey the outward appearance of love. He says that when looking at love that we need to take an inventory of our feeling to find out if we are truly displaying the type of love that God calls agape love. Bell says we need to ask ourselves the following questions: Do I return love? In any relationship love is a two way street. A marriage or relationship will not last very long if only one person is showing love and the other is not responding in kind. As a matter of fact, a spiritual relationship works in pretty much the same way. The bible says that God first loved us, but if we do not return that love to Him the relationship may diminish. As a Christian we must first love the unsaved person just enough to go to them and share the good news of the gospel. Then after that person has received the gospel of Jesus it is then up to them to accept it and return the love by giving their life to Christ. “Ministry is the first stage of this exchange of love.” (Bell, Pg 11)
Love by definition is an emotion explored in philosophy, religion, and literature, often as either romantic love, the fraternal love of others, or the love of God based on the definition found in The Encarta Encyclopedia. As I explored the definition by means of the Internet, books, and articles I noticed the definitions changed quite a bit, but yet had the same basic understanding. The definition I found in The Encarta Encyclopedia was probably the most simple and most basic. It refers to love in the whole aspect, which is Godly, fraternal, and romantic. All in which can only be defined by one word and that it love.
“Love is the state in which man sees things most decidedly as they are not. The power of illusion is at its peak here, as is the power to sweeten and transfigure. In love man endures more, man bears everything. A religion had to be invented in which one could love: what is worst in life is thus overcome – it is not even seen any more.”
The word love is mentioned in the Bible an average of 437 times, depending on the translation, so love is important to the basis of Christianity. One of the most profound pieces of Scripture discussing love is the overused John 3:16, which reads: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (The New Oxford Annotated Bible). This verse brings up the subject of sacrifice, reminding the audience that they have been saved through someone’s death and resurrection. Jesus was crucified so people he had never met would have eternal life in Him; He loved humanity so much that He was willing to die for us to save us. Since Jesus is wholly man and wholly God, we are also able to say that God loved humanity so much that He was willing to die for us to save us. Furthermore, God did not love just a few people, but rather, the entire world. Christ died for everyone, no matter each individual situation. He died for the believers and the non-believers. He died for the sinners and the saints. He died to save everyone for all
As one can see, God’s two greatest commandments are found in Matthew 22:34-40, and they are very powerful and meaningful. When the lawyer confronted Jesus with the question of the greatest commandment He did not hesitate to tell the lawyer that the greatest commandments revolved around love. Not just regular love, but agape love, which is a type of love that God shows to individuals. This type of love is an unconditional type love that is shown to people even when things are not good. When Jesus was on the earth he expected people to cherish and obey these commandments in hope of one day entering the kingdom of heaven.