How can one classify love?
- Love is not merely an emotion - emotions are unstable; love is constant.
- Love is not merely a condition - conditional "love" is called infatuation.
- Love is not merely an action - actions can be feigned.
How then can one classify love?
- Love is a state of the heart.
- It is best likened to madness.
This madness is nondiscriminatory of class, creed, or merit. If we did not know this as a human race, no cliche would ever have suggested that love is blind.
Best advice on love: Your output should exceed your input.
- How do you know when you love someone?
- When their happiness becomes synonymous and inextricable from yours.
Can someone love without commitment? I think until there is a commitment (spoken out loud, but most importantly decided in one's heart), love remains only an emotion. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI believe that one can indeed love without commitment, but it is incomplete. You have heard of unrequited love? I believe that can be genuine. But how unfulfilled is the heart of that person?
DeleteComplete love is commitment. Perfect love is realized in marriage, and in marriage alone is true love honored.
Oh, yes I know what unrequited love is, but it doesn't last very long because it is not reciprocated. Obviously, you can't commit to unrequited love. The reason I think (I don't state it, it's just thoughts) that love without commitment is not real love is because real love never ends (according to Corinthians Ch.13), but if there is no commitment, it means love will have an end, therefore, it wasn't love in the first place... it's just thoughts
DeleteI don't find where the Bible states such. It does say, "Charity never faileth," but that is a slightly different statement than that charity, or love, never ends. If it never fails, that means you can count on it.
DeleteI do agree with you that true love has permanence. It seems, however, that I have heard of even unrequited love lasting through an individual's life and as a result, stifling any other potential romantic love.
Commitment is the means by which two honor each other and God honors the two.
Two can love each other truly without commitment, but it is only actualized by marriage. If any would say that one cannot in a technical sense experience love without commitment, I would ask if a pair has any difference in their heart one day before their wedding than the day of the wedding itself. I believe they would have true love for each other even the day before.
Why then is commitment necessary for complete love?
The only obstruction of commitment is reservation and doubt.
If there are misgivings, there is lack of trust somewhere.
Without trust, there can be no true love.
That is why perfect love leads inexorably to commitment.
My only apology (apology meaning argument) is that I make a distinction between true love and perfect (or complete) love, and that true love is obtained prior to commitment, not simultaneously, and therefore can be experienced independently of commitment.
1 Corinthians 13:8 Russian synodical translation says "Love never ceases" or in other words you can say never stops or drys up" I guess the word "end" is not exactly right, as I used it in the previous comment. English NIV Bible says "love never fails." It's interesting that The King James Version says charity instead of love, since entire chapter is dedicated to love.
DeleteRegarding commitment, I didn't mean necessarily commitment on the day of marriage, because on the day of marriage you state what you already decided in your heart, so real commitment is not what you say with your mouth (although it is very important to do so), but what you have in your heart. This kind of commitment can be present the day before marriage, so the love would be equally perfect the day before and after, if no doubt is present. But I never been married, so I guess my arguments cannot be considered valid.
Joel, you've probably heard that in Greek they have three different words that are used to describe love: agahpey, fileo and eros (forgive me my spelling of Greek, I typed it as it sounds).
DeleteI was certain that in 1 Corinthians the word agahpey is used, I double checked and confirmed my guess. Here's direct translation of this word from Greek: brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence. Here's the link: http://www.greekbible.com/index.php
I have heard of agape and know that it is very different from eros. It is a most interesting point that I Corinthians deals with the "unconditional" (agape) type of love while most quote it as relating to eros, romantic love.
DeleteI am not married, and as such am not completely erudite on the subject of commitment but based upon the premise that commitment is something that springs up in the heart alongside love and not an outward declaration alone, I could certainly concede that true love is inseparable from commitment. It was a good point and one well stated.
Yes, love remains an emotion until time proves it otherwise:) Also, a very good point regarding music and love. Someone who finds joi-de-vive in everything is most likely to be a musical person:) A person who has a great capacity to love and enjoy life usually is related to music somehow, in my opinion....thoughts?
ReplyDeleteI can offer no thoughts as to activity and motives which drive any human other than myself (as my grandfather taught me, inside every head is a different world), but I can say that those who excel in the right side of the brain, the more creative side which also favors the arts, certainly have a greater propensity to externalize their bliss. This gives the definite impression that those who connect intimately with music connect intimately with life. It is indeed a fascinating assertion.
Delete"This gives the definite impression that those who connect intimately with music connect intimately with life. It is indeed a fascinating assertion".
ReplyDeleteIt is fascinating. As a musician, do you connect intimately with life? What does that even mean to you? To 'connect intimately with life'? Are you one who's extroverted, wearing your emotions on your sleeve (for a man, anyway). Or do you keep most of those thoughts and emotions to yourself?
As a musician, I connect music with life only in the sense that because I understand some of the subtle intricacies of the science of music, I know what elements make music portray the spectrum of human emotion, viz. I can tell you why music gives the emotional impressions that it does. So, one can use music to convey feelings and ideas toward life that a million words could never do. But the phrase "connect intimately with life" is an elusive one since everything that breathes has an intimate connection with life. I use that phrase only to express vibrancy and vitality.
DeleteUnfortunately, I cannot make an assertion about whether or not I wear my heart on my sleeve since my self-perception is pitifully subjective. I leave such judgments to my acquaintances. I have known people to label me on all ends of the spectrum, though most say that I am extroverted.
I believe I CAN say that I am honest and do not pretend to be anything that I am not. Perhaps that is another way of measuring one's "intimacy with life."