Love Chapter 1

Among the multitudinous biblical references to love, the most comprehensive and decisive assessment of true love comes in St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. He begins by stating that despite all of his faith and gifts from God, "if I have no love, I am nothing." (I Cor. 13:2) Clearly, Paul recognizes the importance of love. He goes on to define love in very explicit terms, telling both what love is and what it is not. Paul begins, "Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs." (I Cor. 13:4-5) The Apostle continues with the declaration that "love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth." (I Cor. 13:6) Recall here the biblical prohibition of cross-dressing (Deut. 22:5) and lying (Deut. 5:20) Disguise and deceit are far from the truth that makes love happy. The exhortation continues:

Paul begins his definition of love with the statement,

Wesley speaks of love, being a “perfect love”. A love “excluding sin, love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul. It is love ‘rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, in everything giving thanks”. As Christians we must be intentional about loving God, loving others, loving self. 1 John 4:8 declares, “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

But love is thought of as confusing, not to mention for us people who are categorized in our morals as “normal”. “Love” for us might hold the meaning of feeling a special deep emotional affection for a certain someone who was always there. Accordingly, for Christopher, it stands for something different. “And Father said, ‘Christopher, do you understand that I love you?’And I said, ‘Yes,’ because loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth [...]" (Cht.139).

By him not playing with the toys and reading a book as we waited, was his behavior of love towards me. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul speaks of love as being, patient, kind. Then he goes on to say, “love is not jealous or boastful or proud, or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no records of being wronged. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every situation” (New Living Translation). Then Paul reminds us after he goes mentions behaviors as, having the ability to speak all languages of earth and angels (verse 1), and had the gift to prophecy, had the full secrets of God, and had the faith to move mountains (verse 2), given everything he had to the poor and sacrificing his body (verse 3), that without the love, these behaviors are useless. Therefore, according to Paul, love of others needs to be the reason for are choice of behavior.

Corinthians thirteen, perhaps one of Paul’s most memorable passages that is quoted often, explores the characteristic of love (181). The characteristics associated with love are not a natural human reaction, since we can easily be jealous, prideful and/or boastful… This is one of the reasons as to why love is a virtue. Love is to be learned like a melody on an instrument or a new language (182). Love anticipates; we can anticipate our future in the present through loving those around us (182).

Love is not a simple rule or a guideline to do what comes naturally (Wright). This virtue, like the others that are mentioned in this chapter, is a result of active thought (Wright). Wright uses St. Paul as an example of

According to Coffman’s Commentary on the Old and New Testament the passage of scripture found in I Corinthian 13:8-10 are about the permanence of love in contrast to the spiritual gifts that the people in the church at Corinth valued. It is in this part of Paul’s letter that he explains to them that the very things that they cherished and valued in their hearts which were their Spiritual Gifts would come to an abrupt end when Christ returned. He wanted them to understand that the only thing that they possessed that would remain was love. Also according to Coffman, the spiritual gifts that were being treasured were given to the people as they were in their infancy or the beginning stages of their Christianity. Once they reached the age of maturation the infantile gifts would no longer

To begin with, in any book of the Bible, I believe you can see the love pour out from the pages. In “The Bible Guide,” by Andrew Knowles, you can really see in depth the theme of the Book of Ephesians. “Paul gives several examples of Christian behavior:

Compare and contrast the Biblical and the Platonic perspectives. Jesus’s view on love: What the Bible says on love can be very confusing and hard to make sense of at times, and there are many kinds of love talked about in the Bible. So before we go into what the Bible has to say of love, I believe it is important to know the distinction between different kinds on love

In the New Testament, Almost everyone knows that “ God so loved the world” (John 3:16) and “God is love” (John 4:8), and when love appears nobody can express it better than Jesus. We mainly hear about love in the beginning of the first Corinthians ( 1 CO 13) at wedding ceremonies. As new translation were coming out over the years, the version NIV used love as sex acts in Genesis to express the word rather than KJV and ESV used love as knowing the feeling and NASB used love as strong relations. In the 1 corinthians, Paul created a message saying,” the love of god, the love of jesus christ, and the love that the christian expresses in response to God’s saving action in Jesus Christ (samuel E Balentine). As I was looking into the new testament, the chapter called First John stood out to me because majority of the words are love or something describing love.

This representation of sex is inconceivable to think anyone would believe such words; yet today’s society is plague with unplanned pregnancies or those having regrets for pass sexual transgressions. So, what is love? Does it have to do anything with sex? When is the right time for sex? These questions and many insights about love date back centuries to the Creator of the world. Many people have sought the biblical meaning of love to clear up misconceptions that make little or no sense, as read in this poem. To consider lifestyles, family upbringings, traditions, or religious beliefs will differ from all walks of life and end with diverse outlook of

An emotional myth? A rollercoaster of fleeting affection used to describe a moment of sensual self-esteem? What is this blindly used word, love; what does it mean? The Bible has a contrasting definition of love.

Love of God fills us up. (v. 19) This next section of the passage goes in to conclude the prayer Paul has started by ending it with a statement to sum up the reasoning for the previous requests made in verses fourteen through eighteen. To state that the love of God surpasses knowledge doesn’t refer to the actual measurability of knowledge and love but that God’s love is so much more than knowledge and can go further.

Throughout the ages, many have tried to comprehend the human experience of love and its ineffable and mysterious force that leads us to complete euphoria or utter despair, with songs, paintings, and stories. In Plato’s Symposium, six guest including Socrates, tackle and attempt to define love amongst each other. With each attempt, and our study of Johns gospel, the intertextuality between the symposium and John 15:8-17 helps one better understand the portrait that John portrays of Jesus as the ultimate lover and only way to being fully complete.