[Faith-talk] Don't Love; Be Love

[Paul via Faith-talk]

Brandon, this was an excellent though short post about the subject of love. 
Let me weigh in on this subject, as humble and unscholarly as it will be.

First of all, many people in our world today get "love" and "Like" mixed up. 
I would dare say that, most of the time, when many people say "I love You," 
they really mean "I like you." Perhaps a good illustration of what I mean is 
the occasional personal get-together at a picnic, ice-cream social or 
perhaps going out to dinner or for a walk instead of planning a particular 
meeting at a particular time of day or day of the week.  Does your 
acquaintance/friend really love you or are they just saying those words to 
make you feel good?

Secondly, there are four words in the New Testament for love.  There is 
"eros," from which we get the word "erotic." Then there is "Phyllia," or 
brotherly love between two people, either of both sexes or of the same sex, 
without sexual activity.  Then there is "storgi," which I don't understand 
and finally, the highest form of love is "agape," (pronounced ah-ga-pay), 
the love that is unconditional and self-sacrificing.  There is a related 
word that, in Greek doesn't mean "love" in the strictest sense, but is 
closely tied to it.  That word is "koinonia," translated in most English 
Bibles as "fellowship." Anyone here who is him/herself a Greek New Testament 
scholar will tell you that this word "koinonia" goes much deeper than the 
mere word "fellowship."  It means that everyone in a particular Christian 
community or church is deeply and sincerely interested in all aspects of 
everyone's life, being physical, emotional, financial or maybe even 
psychological.  Perhaps in some places this may border on gossip, but I 
would hope not.

There is a word in Esperanto which defines this word "koinonia" better than 
any word I can come up with.  It is the word "samideano," a word whose 
meaning has to be experienced to understand its authenticity rather than 
looking in the dictionary.  That word is "samideaneco." That word means an 
abstract quality of being a member of the same idea.  Maybe this word is 
"over the head" of most of you, but you who are yourselves bilingual or 
multilingual will understand when I say that there are words in another 
language that simply can't be translated accurately into English.

Well, this response has gone on longer than I would like, but I hope that I 
was able to add something to the discussion without sounding to academic, 
something that I'm really not, as I was never a student at a university. 
Paul
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brandon Olivares via Faith-talk" <faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: "Faith-talk,for the discussion of faith and religion" 
<faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2014 2:10 PM
Subject: [Faith-talk] Don't Love; Be Love


Dear all,

I have some thoughts on love that I would like to post. I would appreciate 
open discussion on the matter.

What is Love?

Love is the force that holds all creation together. Without Love, the 
universe would fly apart.

We experience this in daily life. When you love someone, you want to be 
around them. You want to be with them in every way possible.

But this love is not sufficient, because it has conditions. When you get 
angry or upset at a person you love, you are showing the conditions of your 
love. It means they aren’t truly free to be who they may be, because human 
love has conditions.

We all hear that we should love. Love seems to be a doing— something we have 
to strive for. We make an effort to love everyone.

But it’s impossible. Love is not a doing. It is not something you add to 
yourself and suddenly you have the quality of love. It is not something you 
can develop.

Instead, you must realize that you are Love. Love is your very nature. It is 
simply clouded over by your egoic judgments— your attempt to do. Instead it 
is an act of undoing. It is an act of letting go of everything that is not 
Love. Once all things are undone, Love will remain, and you will live out 
Love perfectly in the world. It is more correct to say that you will be 
lived by Love in the world. There is nothing to fight; there is nothing to 
resist.

Then you will love perfectly, without condition. No one could possibly do 
anything to make you love them more or less, because your love does not 
depend on them. It depends on living out your own nature. This Love is 
all-embracing, all-consuming. It changes lover and loved alike.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that the most important attribute is Love, 
and that it will never fail. John says God is Love. It will never fail 
because it is what we are.

Paul also says in verse 12 of the same chapter, “For now we see only a 
reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” Ah, how true. We 
see a reflection now because ego is in the way. All we can see in the world 
are projections of ego, which actually block out Love. When those 
projections are healed, then we will see “face-to-face,” the actual reality 
of things, as it were. And the actual reality of things is perfect Love.

--
Brandon

www.EscapeTheDream.org: Put an End to Suffering and Return to Joy

Latest blog post: Embrace the Darkness

Facebook: Brandon.Olivares
Twitter: @devbanana

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