Love

Ephesians 5:22 commands the wife to submit to her husband while Ephesians 5:25 commands the husband to love his wife. But are these two separate things? I don't think so. Submission is always an act of love and love is always an act of submission. These are not unrelated commands. In fact, they may be one in the same. Love is not some warm, fuzzy, or tingling feeling that you get. Love is an action that involves submission, or the giving up of something important to you so that someone else may benefit. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God submitted...

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Unconditional love is not what you may think. To love someone unconditionally means you cannot look to the other person to define it in any way. Yet that is what most of us do. Most of us look at the object of our love to define it. Let me explain. Ask the average person why they love their spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend and they'll say things like, 'Because she is pretty, smart, a good listener, a hard worker, she makes me feel special, and so forth and so on.' This automatically puts conditions on it. He is defining his love based on what the other person is or is not. This is conditional!...

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The answer to this question is fairly simple. If you love something then you must hate its opposite or the love you have is not love. Let me illustrate. If you love freedom, then you must hate slavery. If you say that you don't hate slavery, how can you say that you love freedom? The two don't mix. If you say you love the truth, then you must hate the lie. If you don't hate the lie, then you can't say you love the truth. This is the nature of the beast. To whatever degree you love, you will by necessity hate that which injures, reduces, or changes what you love. I love God. I hate the Devil....

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Without a doubt, it would be a very simple and immature lover that can only love someone without any faults. We allow people's idiosyncrasies and bad habits to dominate our opinion of them. We focus so easily on the negatives and weaknesses of another. And this is the problem. We need to learn to love people for their faults, not be constantly irritated or ruled by their bad habits. To begin with, don't turn an anthill into a mountain. A bad habit, like gnawing your fingernails, is a rather mundane issue when compared to doing drugs, or being an alcoholic. I admit to having a slight problem...

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Personally, I feel that I have all of these for one person: my wife. I pastor a church and counsel many couples, married and dating, and I've found that the most successful relationships have all of these elements. My wife loves that I have a crush on her, that I'm infatuated with her, that I lust for her, and that I love her deeply. But there are differences. LOVE Love is not an emotion. It isn't some warm fuzzy feeling that you get. You're ability to love is based on you, not anyone else. I love because of who I am. My wife doesn't have to earn my love. She doesn't have to maintain it either....

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The problem, I believe, is not if it's possible or not to fall in love, but rather that so many people mistake a certain feeling for love itself. Love isn't an emotion. What most people assume to be love is the attraction, and sometimes instant attraction, that they have for one another. It is very possible to see someone and instantly be attracted to the way he walks, the way she talks, the way he carries himself, her demeanor, his strength, or her beauty. Attraction is like two magnates. If they are powerful enough, they leap towards each other with the force of that attraction. That is what...

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I am assuming here this is in regards to relationships seeking a life time commitment in marriage. I pastor a Church and as such, I love many people. But when we speak of the term 'in love' there is only one person other than my God that fits that description: My wife. There are a series of questions you may want to ask yourself. AM I WILLING TO SACRIFICE ANY ASPECTS OF MY LIFE TO BE WITH THIS PERSON? When it comes to marriage, God meant for a man and a woman in such a relationship to have something meaningful together. I don't necessarily think that you must or will give up your dreams,...

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There is perhaps nothing more evidently a sign of love than when a person is willing to buy into the moral character and lifestyle of another. Think of how pleased a father will be if his son buys into his philosophy of life and chooses to adopt his father's moral principles in life. I can't think of anything, as a father, that would be more gratifying as a child deciding to follow in my footsteps. Naturally, that isn't expected or pushed, but if a child says, when they are close to adulthood, "I want to be just like dad" that would probably be a sign of love that is greater than anything...

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The more we know of someone the less intrigue and mystery there is and thus the less attraction there is in the relationship. This is a problem. To have a lasting and meaningful relationship, you need to fall in love over and over again. Most folk mistake the strong feelings of attraction for that of love. But these emotions of attraction can't be dismissed either. They are the force that keeps a relationship, such as a marriage, strong and viable. It's what most call love, and for the purpose of this article we'll call it that too. I am a Christian and the Bible teaches me to love my enemies....

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Often, when asked why two people decide to marry each other, the answer comes back as, "Because I love her/him!" Despite a profound misunderstanding of what love really is, this comment has become the stock reason for marriage for most couples. Yet, their love for each other is not enough to keep them married. Everyone who has gotten a divorce, at one time, felt like, believed, and trusted that they loved the person they eventually divorced. Clearly, love wasn't enough. In fact, is it not true that you argue more with people whom you say you love the most? Is it not also true that you've been...

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