The biblical concept comes from the use of the word "Yada", which means "to know." I personally really enjoy that word or better yet, the loftiness in the way the hebrews used words. I said to myself sometime today before I viewed the lecture that the term "love" has become almost dead in my vocabulary. Our culture has abused it.
Anyway, Yada means to know, but in their culture, you don't truly know someone unless you have a a very personal and intimate relationship. A close, warm, passionate intimacy was was a must or you didn't know someone. Relating this concept, our knowing God, to divine revelation.
Through God's love profoundly expressed through Jesus's coming, living, and dying for us on the cross, we see the "han" God has for us.
Religion The Yakama believe that the Creator created the world and all its inhabitants. They believe that the Creator made laws that they must follow, and that he created the first man and the first women. Go to the Tribal Stories page to read the Yakama creation story.
Paul begins his definition of love with the statement,
Love is a difficult word to explain, and everyone has their own opinions on what they think it truly means. Romance is a major topic in literature, movies, music, etc.… The world is continuously surrounded by the notion of finding companionship in a single person and staying with them “until death do us part.” In “Against Love” by Laura Kipnis, Kipnis states, “If you love me, you’ll do what I want or need, or demand--- and I’ll love you in return” (Kipnis 805). “Carnal Knowledge” is a prime example of how Kipnis’ claim on love fails. Where a human being can pour his heart out to another person, do all he could to please and satisfy them and receive not an ounce of devotion in return. While everyone is entitled to their own opinions,
Loving happens as natural as the rising of the sun. At some point in our lives, we all profess to love someone or something. For as long as the word and notion of love has existed, there have been innumerable attempts to explain just what love is and whom we should or should not love. Even the Bible, commands its believers to love their neighbors, family, friends, and enemies as they love themselves. The Phaedrus, one of Plato's greatest dialogues delves into the love in terms of who would be best for us to love and why. Phaedrus makes mention of a speech by Lysias, whom he strongly admires, that states that one should strive to love a non-lover, someone who does not and will not love you in
All human beings possess a basic understanding of love and are able to express love through verbalizations, emotions, gestures, or other acts of kindness; however, the condition of the human heart is tainted by sin and so is love in terms of humanity. Thus, human beings are unable to understand and comprehend love’s truest form which is found in the embodiment God’s being. God’s love is communicated to mankind through the covenants, the wonders of creation, the personhood of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit who subsequently seals God’s offer of salvation through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, those whom God allows Himself to be known can also know God’s love through God’s providential care and sustainment
In Plato’s Symposium, a group of philosophers all get together at a man named Agathon’s house and eventually decide to give speeches on love. The men all take turns giving their various speeches on Love, each attacking the idea of Love in a different way. Phaedrus talks about Love’s origins and how Love encourages people to be virtuous, Pausanias makes the distinction between Common Love (love of body) and Celestial Love (love of mind), Eryximachus talks about how Love promotes balance, Aristophanes talks about how Love is about people continually searching for their other half (quite literally), but how people can never find this other half, so people will never be whole, and finally Agathon talks about Love’s beauty and Love’s desire for beauty. When Socrates speaks, he starts off by saying that he will give the truth about Love, which he claims no one else did. He proves this by questioning Agathon’s speech, asking how Love can both be beautiful and desire beauty when people do not desire what they already have. Furthermore, Socrates recounts a conversation about Love with Diotima, whose view of Love combines parts of all the other speeches into one truth about love. True love is passing on one’s ideas through celestial love in order to live forever.
Eryximachus spoke of love as harmony, or balance, both physically and mentally within oneselves and with another. If harmony is being in agreement, or peace, with something else, then there must be some sort of understanding of each other in order for that to take place. For example, perhaps musical harmonies were first discovered by accident. If I sat in front of a piano, never having learned to play, and started to press keys, I would eventually simultaneously press keys that together just, in a way, make sense. But, whether or not I am conscious of it, there is a science, or a theory behind the sounds I am causing. By understanding how the difference in pitch in intervals between notes works, musicians create harmony- sounds that arguably sound what love feels like. Picture yourselves that you are looking at someone you love, and now imagine the perfect harmony- do they not feel the same? Yes, harmony can happen by accident, but even when it happens by accident, the science or theory behind it still exists, we are just not aware of
Then in the NT, God further condescends to us in human form in Christ to be even more completely known to believers, then consummated in heaven with “Eden Restored” as in Rev. 22:4. God the only true God, spirit, eternal, omnipresent, infinite, unchangeable, all-knowing/perfect/wise/glorious is also known to believers as completely faithful, ever seeking us and in our praises Hallelu-JAH! The alpha and omega, the LORD God, mighty one is revealed to us in the NT as Father, then more revealed as Father, Spirit, Son. As God reveals Himself to us in the persons of the Father, Spirit, and Son and in all of His virtues, these are in complete harmony, none are overemphasized over another virtue. For example, in our culture, God is commonly seen as love, without giving credence to His other attributes. Justice, righteousness and sovereignty is commonly left out. We should recognize society’s weakness in using only human language and the sinful propensity to try to create God in our own image instead of what is revealed. At best we can only say that we know God as He has chosen to reveal Himself primarily through Scripture and history through His Son and the Holy Spirit.
Through life, people experience many kinds of love. Many people often believe they love someone, when they actually do not because they may not know what the word means. As much as we want to understand love, it is still simply indescribable. As C.S. Lewis tries to explain it in his book, The Four Loves, it is still a mystery as to what love truly means. I believe in order to know what love means, one must experience it. It is quite true that went two individuals are in love with each other, they know it and can feel it. No matter how much love is studied and looked at, every individual must experience it to understand it. Along with this love lies circumstances which lead
Love is something that every human being as capable of feeling. No matter how hard an individual tries to avoid it, they will at one time or another will be blindsided by love. Love can come in many different forms, love for parents, love for money, love for country, to name of few. Love is something that our race has been focused on since the beginning. Civilizations have written about love throughout the ages and it has been a cornerstone of literature. Love has started wars, ended nations, created treaties and dissolved monarchs. Not only does love transcend human law when restricted but also transcends time and space. People who have been in long distance relationships can attest that no matter how far you are away from your loved one, that love does not diminish and in many cases grows stronger. The love for one’s significant other has been said to be “true” love, the love that transcends all and is more important than life itself in some cases. True love cannot be based solely on outward appearance or the physical longing for someone but is much deeper and reaches the spiritual and emotional base of our existence. True love demands commitment to another person on a level in which most people have only committed to themselves. The Bible tries to define love as patient and kind; that love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
What is love? Many people do not know the meaning of love, they think that it is what we feel but it’s what we do that demonstrates love. (Deem, 2011). There are many ways to express your love to your family or friends but there is one true love, God. I will be discussing the biblical meaning of love and what God wants us to apply to ourselves to have healthy relationships by representing his love to others. There are four types of love which are Forge, Eros, Philia and Agape. (Wellman, 2014)
Love is passion, bravery, and bliss. Love is blindness, slavery, and psychosis. Love has caused some of my fondest memories, whether it be the times simply speaking my truest thoughts to my mother or lying in bed with a partner saying nothing yet still being able to communicate my most sincere self in silence. Yet love has also compelled me to do, in my opinion, my most heinous acts, whether that be lying to my family about my religious beliefs in order to save them pain or giving in to lust so much that my own sexual desires meant more than my partner’s emotional needs. While anyone may sit and theorize what the true meaning or purpose of love is, conceptually love is a confusing concept that proves to be challenging for even Socrates to
Gutierrez & Etzel state in our text (2012) that “the words we use carry great significance.” In the King James version of the Bible, the word love is used 310 times. It is mentioned in the Old Testament 131 times, and 179 in the New Testament. The word love is used heavily in the bible, which shows us the importance in which God places on love, and tells us how much importance we ourselves should be placing on love. After all, God’s law of love is meant to be a governing foundation for our behavior, and how we live our lives as Christians.
The love that has been practiced by majority (as discussed) is not holistic as it ought to be, sometimes it is cold and at times warm hence cannot be the same to the natural love created and intended by our creator neither in anyway does it wholly resemble the love that he has shown us. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world (1 John 5:4) but the one practiced by man, instead the world has overcome.
God and love are two words that I find intriguing since their definitions vary depending on who is defining it and their experience. The meaning of these words had raised my curiosity. The faithful beliefs that God and Love exists, the skeptical say those are just myths while others spend their life looking for them in the wrong places.