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Love (Greek: άγάπη agape) is a primary characteristic of God's nature (1 John 4:8, 16) and the highest expression of Christian faith and action (1 Cor. 13:13; Gal. 5:14; Eph. 5:2; 1 John 4:7-21). In the New Testament, agape is charitable, selfless, altruistic, and unconditional. Love-1 Corinthians 13:4-13
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
And we have known and believed the Love that God hath to us. GOD IS LOVE; and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16)
It is parental love seen as creating goodness in the world, it is the way God is seen to love humanity, and it is seen as the kind of love that Christians aspire to have for others. (Greek: Philia) - also used in the New Testament, Philia is a human response to something that is found to be delightful. Also known as "brotherly love".
Two other words for love in the Greek language -- (Greek: eros) (sexual love) and storge (needy child-to parent love) were never used in the New Testament.
Whether religious love can be expressed in similar terms to interpersonal love is a matter for philosophical debate. Religious 'love' might be considered a euphemistic term, more closely describing feelings of deference or acquiescence. Love can be expressed by prayer, service, good deeds, and personal sacrifice.
Many Christians believe that the greatest commandment is "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" are the two greatest commandments (which are the two greatest commandments of God, according to Jesus). (Mark 12:28-34). Saint Augustine of Hippo summarised this when he wrote "Love God, and do as thou wilt". Paul the Apostle glorified agape love as the most important virtue of all in 1 Corinthians 13 (above).
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" I believe love is the most important and least understood concepts we are capable of feeling, portraying, expressing, sharing, freely giving, talking about, or accepting. The true "definition" of love is beyond the limitations of speech or language because it exists within us.
Love is the essence of, relationship with, and connection to God the Father; love does not, and cannot exist separate from Him. Love is not partial but imperforate. It fills, it binds, it has no limit. Love can never reach any maximum. As it grows, it makes room for more growth.
Love exists outside the bounds of time and space; it is, always has been, always will be. Love is what our spirit yearns for, what our true selves always seek. Love is what gives us hope, inspiration and joy. Love, within us, can never die because it is eternal. And without it we are only a shell of our true identity.[1]
Many Christian theologians see God as the source of love, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John 4:8 KJV])
In Hebrew Ahava (אהב 'ahab) is the most commonly used term for both interpersonal love and love of God. Other related but dissimilar terms are Chen (grace) and Hesed, which basically combines the meaning of "affection" and "compassion" and is sometimes rendered in English as "loving-kindness".
Judaism employs a wide definition of love, both between people and between man and the Deity. As for the former, the Torah states: "Love your neighbor like yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). As for the latter, one is commanded to love God "with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5), taken by the Mishnah (a central text of the Jewish oral law) to refer to good deeds, willingness to sacrifice one's life rather than commit certain serious transgressions, willingness to sacrifice all one's possessions and being grateful to the Lord despite adversity (tractate Berachoth 9:5). Rabbinic literature differs how this love can be developed, e.g. by contemplating Divine deeds or witnessing the marvels of nature.
As for love between marital partners, this is deemed an essential ingredient to life: "See life with the wife you love" (Ecclesiastes 9:9). The Biblical book Song of Songs is a considered a romantically-phrased metaphor of love between God and his people, but in its plain reading reads like a love song.
The 20th-century rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler is frequently quoted as defining love from the Jewish point-of-view as "giving without expecting to take" (from his Michtav me-Eliyahu, vol. I). Romantic love per se has few echoes in Jewish literature, although the medieval rabbi Judah Halevi wrote romantic poetry in Arabic in his younger years (he appears to have regretted this later).
The Doctrine Of Love
- But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. (Luke 6:27)
- This is My Commandment, That ye Love one another, as I have Loved you. (John 15:12)
- By this shall all men know that ye are My Disciples, if ye have Love one for another. (John 13:35)
- Greater Love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
- Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law. (Romans 13:10)
- For All the Law is fulfilled in One Word. Even in this; Thou shalt Love thy neighbour as thyself. (Galatians 5:14)
- We know that we have passed from death unto life, BECAUSE WE LOVE THE BRETHREN. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. (1 John 3:14)
- ..I would be nothing, unless I Loved others. (1 Corinthians 13:2)
- And may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s Children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high HIS LOVE REALLY IS; and to experience this Love for yourselves, though it is SO GREAT that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God Himself. (The Living Bible) (Ephesians 3:18-19)
- And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we LOVE ONE ANOTHER. (2 John 5)
- For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should LOVE ONE ANOTHER. (1 John 3:11)
- And this is His Commandment, That we should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and Love one another, as He gave us Commandment. (1 John 3:23)
- And this Commandment have we from Him, That he who Loveth God Love his brother also. (A new Commandment I give unto you, That ye Love one another; as I have Loved you, that ye also Love one another. (John 13:34)
- Hereby perceive we the Love of God, because He laid down His Life for us: and we ought to lay down our Lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:16)
- Beloved, let us Love one another: for Love is of God; and every one that Loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. (1 John 4:7)
- No man hath seen God at any time. If we Love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His Love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12)
- And we have known and believed the Love that God hath to us. GOD IS LOVE; and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16)
Notes
- « Ray Watts, this article
- BibleGateway.com (ESV) English Standard Version.
- Luke 6:27,
- John 15:12,
- John 13:35,
- John 13:35,
- John 15:13,
- Romans 13:10,
- Galatians 5:14,
- 1 John 3:14,
- 1 Corinthians 13:2,
- Ephesians 3:18-19,
- 1 John 3:11,
- 1 John 3:23,
- John 13:34,
- 1 John 3:16,
- 1 John 4:7,
- 1 John 4:12,
- 1 John 4:16.
References
- Oxford Illustrated American Dictionary (1998) + Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (2000).
- Kristeller, Paul Oskar (1980). Renaissance Thought and the Arts: collected essays. Princeton University. ISBN 0691020108.
- Mascaró, Juan (2003). The Bhagavad Gita. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0140449183. (J. Mascaró translator)
- Kay, Paul. "What Is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?". American Anthropologist, New Series, Volume 86, No. 1, March, 1984. pp. 65-79
- Ancient Love Poetry
- DiscoveryHealth, Paraphilia, retrieved on 6/26/2010
- Lewis, Thomas; Amini, F., & Lannon, R. (2000). A General Theory of Love. Random House. ISBN 0375709223.
- Winston, Robert (2004). Human. Smithsonian Institution.
- Emanuele, E. Polliti, P, Bianchi, M. Minoretti, P. Bertona, M., & Geroldi, D. (2005). “Raised plasma nerve growth factor levels associated with early-stage romantic love.” Abstract. Psychoneuroendocrinology, Nov. 09.
- Rubin,Zick. "Measurement of Romantic Love". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,16, 265-273, 1970
- Rubin, Zick.Liking and Loving: an invitation to social psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 1973
- Berscheid, Ellen; Walster, Elaine, H. (1969). Interpersonal Attraction. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. CCCN 69-17443.
- Peck, Scott (1978). The Road Less Traveled. Simon & Schuster, 169. ISBN 0-671-25067-1.
- Pope Benedict XVI, papal encyclical, Deus Caritas Est.
Sources
- Henry Chadwick. "Saint Augustine Confessions". Oxford University Press, 1998.
- Helen Fisher. Why We Love: the Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love
- Irving Singer, The Nature of Love, in three volumes, Random House (v.1, 1966), reprinted and later volumes from The University of Chicago Press, 1984. ISBN 0226760944
- R. J. Sternberg. A triangular theory of love. 1986. Psychological Review, 93, 119–135
- R. J. Sternberg. Liking versus loving: A comparative evaluation of theories. 1987. Psychological Bulletin, 102, 331–345
- Dorothy Tennov. Love and Limerence: the Experience of Being in Love. New York: Stein and Day, 1979. ISBN 0812861345
- Wood, Wood and Boyd. The World of Psychology. 5th edition. 2005. Pearson Education, 402–403
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