What is Love?

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Little_Mary

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Is Love an emotion that you cannot control, iow, do you believe that it is possible to “fall” in love? Or is it a decision that you make? Or both?
Is Love a noun, or a verb, or can it be both?
 
To Love to to want the greatest Good for another…to want for Heaven for the person regardless of the circumstances. (e.g. to want for God’s will to be performed to the fullest extent possible in each individual)
 
Little_Mary said:
Is Love an emotion that you cannot control, iow, do you believe that it is possible to “fall” in love? Or is it a decision that you make? Or both?
Is Love a noun, or a verb, or can it be both?
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We’re wired for it. And so yes, people fall in love in the classic sense-sort of unexpectedly overwhelmed by it. It’s used both as a verb, as in “I love you” or a noun, as in “God is love”, or, “I have love for so and so”.
 
Little_Mary said:
Is Love an emotion that you cannot control, iow, do you believe that it is possible to “fall” in love? Or is it a decision that you make? Or both?
Is Love a noun, or a verb, or can it be both?
Click to expand...
Volumes have been written on this subject.

Love has a number of aspects each of which may or may not have other terms attached to them.
There are Emotional aspects, Characterological aspects and Spiritual aspects to this thing that we, in english just call “love”.
The emotional aspects are those we commonly associate with “eros” or "roamntic love. These are “desires” and “feelings” that are triggered on different levels. We “Love” being with another person who makes us “feel good”, we “get along with”, we “desire” to possess them for our own (marriage) and to “procreate” with them. These “emotional” aspects are not necessarily bad, but they tend toward the “selfish” - how they gratify the self.
Spiritual aspects of Love are those that deal with an “agape” Love. This is much more of a “Brotherly Love”. This type of Love is less about emotion and “feeling good” etc., and more about giving. Treating others as you wish to be treated and so forth. This is the type of Love that Christ Speaks of in the “two great commandments” passage. We are to Love God with everything we have, and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. (Mt 22:36-40) In this sense tskrobacz gave the best and shortest answer. Love means desiring the greatest good for another.

The Characterological aspects is the most complicated, because this speaks to how we are “wired” by nature and by training. Some people are so “in love” with themselves that they are unable to “Love” another except for what they can get from the other person. Other people are so “in love” with others that they don’t seem to be able to “give” enough.
Most of us fit somewhere in between these extremes.

So - in short, “Love” is a complex term that can involve both reason and emotion.
Yes we can “Fall” in Love, and the attraction can be for good reasons or for poor reasons. But the thing to remember is that, emotions will change. The desires, the ups and downs etc will all effect the “emotional” (eros) aspects, but our decision (agape) to Love is, or should be, constant.

Peace
James
 
I’m not really sure what kind of answer you’re looking for, all I can really give you is my opinion on the matter. As I have come to know it, Love is as someone else already pointed out- doing what is best for another person reguardless of the consequences to oneself. In a word, selflessness. It is a decision we make not feelings that we feel. I say that because you can have feelings of contempt for another person and still be willing to feed them if they’re hungry and clothe them if they’re naked. Those actions stem from mercy which I’m not sure if you can have without love, as they tend to dovetail rather nicely.
 
Willing and giving to the ultimate good of another. Self-donation. A willful decision, not emotion.
 
Little_Mary said:
Is Love an emotion that you cannot control, iow, do you believe that it is possible to “fall” in love? Or is it a decision that you make? Or both?
Is Love a noun, or a verb, or can it be both?
Click to expand...
love is a choice… there are different types of love. The type of love that is closest to God’s love is agape, which is defined by self giving, sacrifice, and a choice for the other person’s good. It’s a supernatural type of love. Here’s an excellent talk that helped me understand this 🙂 youtube.com/watch?v=c99to97XYG4 (there are several parts)

A good explanation of love is in 1 Corinthians 13

God bless!
 
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