the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.[1] In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. In religious context, love is not just a virtue, but the basis for all being ("God is love"[2]), and the foundation for all divine law (Golden Rule).
in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships as the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.[1] In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. In religious context, love is not just a virtue, but the basis for all being ("God is love"[2]), and the foundation for all divine law (Golden Rule).
The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my wife"). "Love" can also refer specifically to the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love, to the sexual love of eros (cf. Greek words for love), to the emotional closeness of familial love, or to the platonic love that defines friendship,[3] to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. [4] This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.
nd, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.
But my favorite definition is Corinthians 1 13:4-12 from Paul's epistle.
1 Love does not hurt - 2 won't hurt, 3 can't hurt. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Is this a glimpse of 'spirituality'? Is this the kind of love expected only of 'God' (for those who believe in the supernatural) or God like people to have? Yet Paul writes to the people in Corinth at one of the most trying time in their history, inviting them to reconsider their notion of 'love'.
I think it behooves us to take note of this passage, (even if we do not believe in God, church or any religion). These are human words - plain and simple, stating in no uncertain terms that love is extended with no expectation, with no condition, with no reason. It does not guarantee the giver of freedom from loneliness. It does not promise paradise. It doesn't even offer recompense to the wronged. It merely states what love means. If you find these notions strange or 'unfamiliar' then you have not really loved.
We love the way we are loved - as children, in the arms of a narcissist, a victim, an emotionally fulfilled person, a self assured one or an abused person. In one form or another that becomes the blueprint for the way we learn to connect to another. As children we cannot fight back the unfairness.
We don't know any better so we accept punishment along with words of love. And perhaps, when we grow up, we also apply the same to others. We punish the other for not playing by the rules we were taught. Some of those rules may involve physical abuse, some may include gaining control over another's mind and emotions, some would involve disallowing emotional growth, some would inject guilt. It's all there. We live the blueprint - the code.
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