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Love is not a permanent state of enthusiasm


DesertSW

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Love is a verb. That's the first thing to remember when asked, what is love?

It's an active engagement with all kinds of feelings-positive ones, primitive ones, and loathsome ones. But it's an active verb. It's often surprising how it can kind of ebb and flow. It's like the moon. We think it's disappeared, and suddenly it shows up again. That's love in human beings. It's not a permanent state of enthusiasm. Hollywood, books and poetry have corrupted what human love is like in this fallen state of humankind.

1 Cor 13

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails

Most Christians have skewed understandings and definitions of what marital love is and how it works. Marriage is not easy and marriage involves two fallen and imperfect people, coming together.

Wedding vows should include something like, "I will screw up on a regular basis, and, on occasion, I'll admit it"

 

 

 

 

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16 hours ago, Yowm said:

God is love. Is He a verb? 

Perhaps

Yowm,   I don't care what the emergents and rick warrens and pope or popes say about ya .  YOU KNOW I loves ya .   

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17 hours ago, Yowm said:

God is love. Is He a verb? 

Perhaps

God so loved the world that h\He gave Him his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for our sins because He loved us so.

So yes, God is love and His love is an acting verb.

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In marriage, like in Biblical stories, love is not a permanent state of enthusiasm. Sometimes God gets frustrated with His people that He loves and harsh words are said. True Biblical marital love involves a Godly love.

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27 minutes ago, Yowm said:

If "Love is not a permanent state of enthusiasm" and God is love yet God does not change, why would His enthusiasm in His love not be permanent?

(not trying to be a smart alec, just a conversation piece lol).

 

I will answer your question but the problem with your question is that it contains a flawed statement within it so the question itself is wrong.

Point 1- "God does not change" God is His nature does not change but the way He deals and interacts with mankind does. So God does change in how He deals and interacts with the world. For example, God told Adam & Eve to stay in the garden, then He told them to leave. God told mankind to worship Him by bringing offerings to the temple, then God said that the temple offerings must stop as He completed the final offering once and for all. There are probably hundreds of such examples of God changing on how He deals with mankind.

God is not a robot, He does change in how He interacts with man. That verse "God does not change" is probably one of the most incorrectly quoted and applied verses out there.

Point 2 - Enthusiasm is a human emotion. It comes and goes like the sun and waves. It's there one minute, gone the next. That is part of being a human. The same enthusiasm you had when one meets a girlfriend or kisses a spouse for the first time, will wain and no longer have the same enthusiasm. It may come back but it also may fade away.

Love is a verb, it's action. God's love was ultimately shown on Calvary 2,000 years ago. Yet, that love is still active today because one can believe on that act that was done 2,000 years ago, believe today and be saved. That is love, a verb of action. Not just an emotion that comes and goes.

So to conclude. God does change, His love is permanent as shown by His action on the cross. It is not a flawed emotional feeling that we have as fallen human beings, which comes and goes. We are told to love in God's Word and that love in God's Word is a verb, not just a feeling. Jesus said, if you love me, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus said, if you love me, feed my people. God demands action with love. Many Christians see love in a marriage as merely a feeling which it is not. It's action. Feelings come and go.

I've heard Christian people say, "I don't love my spouse anymore", which God's response to that is found in His Word. Love is not just a feeling, it's action. So the statement of "I don't love my spouse anymore" is a flawed statement because it's premise is wrong. That person who makes that statement doesn't truly understand what love is according to God's Word. They understand it as seen through the secular earthly perspective of merely an emotional feeling.

Edited by DesertSW
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1 hour ago, Yowm said:

But God does not change as far as His nature goes and His nature includes love.

I never said that God's nature changes. I stated that God changes in the way He deals with mankind.

God's love and human love are two different things as one if infinite and infallible while the latter is finite and fallible.

Quote

That's not because God changed, but mankind's nature changed.

Also love involves a determination, that also does not change with God. He finishes what He originally purposes.

 

While the garden involved mankind making a decision that caused God to change His dealings with mankind, the old covenant to new covenant was a change that God made, not mankind. In that instance, God made the change, not based on something man had done, but God had decided to introduce a new covenant and way of dealing with man.

Hebrews 8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Luke 22:20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

So there is nothing here in disagreement. Unless one is looking to create an argument for arguments sake.

Returning to the point at hand. Marital love is a verb that requires action from both spouses. It is not a permanent state of emotional enthusiasm. Love is an emotion and action. It is both but true love is a verb which means action. The emotional part of love comes and goes, it's part of human nature. One day you "feel" loving and the next day you don't.

 

Edited by DesertSW
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I believe the lack of understanding of what LOVE is and how it works, especially in a marriage, is the main reason why 1 in 3 Christian marriages end in divorce here in the USA.

Edited by DesertSW
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