Love

Much has been said about love, but if you search the horizon, you will discover that most of the things written about love are either pithy or cynical.

Society in general can be cruel and heartless toward real virtue of any kind. In the most popular venues, love is seldom dealt with with any degree of sobriety. Modern humor mocks marriage, husbands and wives, then glorifies every conceivable breech of virtue, such as sexual immorality, profane and obscene values.

Real love is a mystery to most people. Most people never realize the true potential or value of love, nor do they learn to practice the art of love. It is usually very poorly defined. People think they are in love, but they can’t explain it. There is a great deal of confusion and cross-referencing of the terms LOVE, ROMANCE, INFATUATION, AFFECTION, TENDERNESS and so forth.

Love may include romance, infatuation, affection and tenderness. But even if those elements are not present, it could still be love.

A lot of people will tell you that they are in love, or that they have been in love, but there is a huge disparity between one person’s definition of love and another’s.

Two of my favorite statements on love are:

Love is a choice to do the highest good for someone.

Love is the bond of perfectness (Colossians 3:14):

It is the perfect glue.

Love is noble and idealistic. Love is the highest of all the virtues. God Himself is love. Paul classified faith, hope and love as the highest virtues, and concluded that love was the highest of the three.

Love is essential to all perfect relationships.

What most people never realize is that true love is not always romantic. Romance is different from love, even though ideally, they should occur together. Romance is the emotional component of love. Romance adds the sparkle in your eyes. Romance adds the perfume and the colors. Romance embellishes the scenery and swells the music. Romance is the gilding of love. Romance is gold leaf. It is ornamentation. Romance sometimes becomes a means unto itself. It even becomes a cheap substitute for love at times. Some people seem to desire the trappings and embellishments of romance in place of genuine relationships. By comparison, romance is superficial to love. Romance is skin deep. Love is heart deep. Romance requires things that love does not require. Romance requires gifs and surprises and lavish attention. Romance sometimes demands things that contradict love. Romance is offended when the gold leaf wears off. Romance condemns love that is not eye-pleasing. Romance often injures and denigrates true love because love doesn’t always appeal to romance’s selfishness.

Love is for givers, not getters. Those who demand to be loved before they will love shouldn’t be surprised if no one gives them love. Lovers live in