Love
There's a four letter word we could stand to hear more. And yet, we hear it way too much in the wrong context. "I love chocolate." "I love the Cubs." "I love my truck." When did it become ok to reduce love to the point where we can shower it on a truck?
No. What I mean is we could stand to hear the word "love" more in the true context of what it really means. Not as a substitute word for fond of, like, enjoy, but as a word with depth and real meaning.
Love is a verb. It's an action word. It's not just an emotion. It's a choice. Believe me, I've been married over 20 years, and if some days I didn't CHOOSE to love my husband I would be in a mess. Same goes for him choosing to love me!
You see, if I depended on some fickle emotion to dictate my view of my husband, and sometimes my children, there'd have been some days I would have held them in the lowest esteem. But, instead, I make a clear choice to love them. I love them not based on what they do or say, but often in spite of it. I love them not based on how deserving they are at the moment, but because I am a faulty human, too.
Now, I do have friends and say I love them. It's true. But I don't love them in the same way I love my husband. I love them as friends, which means I have no desire to take a romp in the hay with them. I love my mother, but I don't plan to marry her.
Love really is a verb. It's more than a feeling. It's more than romance. It's more than physical attraction. It's a choice, and it's demonstrated less in hugs and kisses than in other actions I take. For instance, bringing my husband a glass of iced tea is an act of love. Him bringing me a cup of coffee is an act of love.
I am really concerned over today's usage of the word, since it's been cheapened by so many.
Matt 5:44
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
KJV
That would be so very hard to follow, wouldn't it? Yet, Jesus said to do it. He said to make a choice to love our enemies.
John 13:35
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
KJV
Brotherly love. A love that is not selfish at all, but seeks to serve others.
1 Corinthians 13 give us a wonderful definition of love (charity), and teaches us how to exhibit Christian love.
So, when did "love" become so base? When did it come to be interchanged with the word "lust"?
Eph 5:25 & 28
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;...
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
KJV
What kind of love is that? It's self-sacrificing. It's a command to husbands to expect to give themselves wholly to their wives in marriage, and to sacrifice themselves for her. Could anything be more romantic than that? Than a man who will lay down his life for his wife? A man with courage and integrity who will do more than die for her, he'll live for her?
Yet, in today's modern society, "love" is tossed around like a cheap trinket. It's applied to a person's fondness for objects that cannot return love to them. It's applied to illicit relationships outside of marriage - adultery, homosexuality, even rapists and pedophiles latch onto the word at times! "Love" is no longer a verb or a choice. We "fall" in love as if we just fell into a mud puddle. It's something we can get out of and clean up, then start over. So, now it's an accident. "I can't help loving _____." (You fill in the blank.)
Even further, legal approval is now being sought for relationships labeled as "love" even though they have traditionally been taboo. Homosexuals want the privilege of marriage so their love can be state sanctioned. This opens the door to even more vile forms of "love". For if this can be legal, what's to stop others from coming forward and demanding "equal protection"? What's to stop those involved in incestuous relationships from wanting their coupling to be a legal marriage? What's to stop adults from wanting to legalize physical relationships with children? What's to stop anyone who desires to have multiple wives or husbands from demanding their "rights"?
Am I surprised by all of this? No. It's no suprise at all.
2 Tim 3:1-7
3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
KJV
Rom 1:26-27
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
KJV
No...no surprise.
Rev 22:20
20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
KJV
No. What I mean is we could stand to hear the word "love" more in the true context of what it really means. Not as a substitute word for fond of, like, enjoy, but as a word with depth and real meaning.
Love is a verb. It's an action word. It's not just an emotion. It's a choice. Believe me, I've been married over 20 years, and if some days I didn't CHOOSE to love my husband I would be in a mess. Same goes for him choosing to love me!
You see, if I depended on some fickle emotion to dictate my view of my husband, and sometimes my children, there'd have been some days I would have held them in the lowest esteem. But, instead, I make a clear choice to love them. I love them not based on what they do or say, but often in spite of it. I love them not based on how deserving they are at the moment, but because I am a faulty human, too.
Now, I do have friends and say I love them. It's true. But I don't love them in the same way I love my husband. I love them as friends, which means I have no desire to take a romp in the hay with them. I love my mother, but I don't plan to marry her.
Love really is a verb. It's more than a feeling. It's more than romance. It's more than physical attraction. It's a choice, and it's demonstrated less in hugs and kisses than in other actions I take. For instance, bringing my husband a glass of iced tea is an act of love. Him bringing me a cup of coffee is an act of love.
I am really concerned over today's usage of the word, since it's been cheapened by so many.
Matt 5:44
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
KJV
That would be so very hard to follow, wouldn't it? Yet, Jesus said to do it. He said to make a choice to love our enemies.
John 13:35
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
KJV
Brotherly love. A love that is not selfish at all, but seeks to serve others.
1 Corinthians 13 give us a wonderful definition of love (charity), and teaches us how to exhibit Christian love.
So, when did "love" become so base? When did it come to be interchanged with the word "lust"?
Eph 5:25 & 28
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;...
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
KJV
What kind of love is that? It's self-sacrificing. It's a command to husbands to expect to give themselves wholly to their wives in marriage, and to sacrifice themselves for her. Could anything be more romantic than that? Than a man who will lay down his life for his wife? A man with courage and integrity who will do more than die for her, he'll live for her?
Yet, in today's modern society, "love" is tossed around like a cheap trinket. It's applied to a person's fondness for objects that cannot return love to them. It's applied to illicit relationships outside of marriage - adultery, homosexuality, even rapists and pedophiles latch onto the word at times! "Love" is no longer a verb or a choice. We "fall" in love as if we just fell into a mud puddle. It's something we can get out of and clean up, then start over. So, now it's an accident. "I can't help loving _____." (You fill in the blank.)
Even further, legal approval is now being sought for relationships labeled as "love" even though they have traditionally been taboo. Homosexuals want the privilege of marriage so their love can be state sanctioned. This opens the door to even more vile forms of "love". For if this can be legal, what's to stop others from coming forward and demanding "equal protection"? What's to stop those involved in incestuous relationships from wanting their coupling to be a legal marriage? What's to stop adults from wanting to legalize physical relationships with children? What's to stop anyone who desires to have multiple wives or husbands from demanding their "rights"?
Am I surprised by all of this? No. It's no suprise at all.
2 Tim 3:1-7
3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
KJV
Rom 1:26-27
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
KJV
No...no surprise.
Rev 22:20
20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
KJV
Labels: Opinion
posted by Ann crum @ 1:04 PM
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