Thursday, June 28, 2007 @ 8:00 AM

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The session today about “love” made me see the difference between the points-of-view of students in our class. I also learned that there are different types of love, namely, liking, infatuation, empty love, romantic love, fantasy/illusory love and true love. All these types of love, except for the last. is not what we can define as “whole/complete” love (one that satisfies and lasts forever), because the three components of real love which are intimacy, passion and commitment are what make love “whole/complete”. If one of these components go missing in love, chances are that love will not last, or you will not be satisfied with that love.

1 Corinthians 13 - Love

1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is what I consider the ultimate description of love. As described in the class earlier, the passage also agrees that love is a “warm feeling balanced with reason and commitment”. Love is a sacrifice and a blessing to those who have it. It is a sacrifice because it can hurt one so much, and yet still be seeked. It is a blessing because through love, we become complete human beings. Love is accepting a person for who he is, no matter what his shortcomings are.(For me) Love is the mark that god left in humans to prove that he exists. As Blaise Pascal once said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every one of us that only God can fill.” Love is like God. A person always desires to be loved, because it is only through love that a person becomes satisfied. Without love, wealth, success and power means nothing, because love is a need and desire that surpasses all worldly things.

I never have been into a “love relationship” (girlfriend/boyfriend), but as far as I am concerned, love should be decided by both the heart and the mind. Love is not like obssesion which just fades away and left as it is. Love is made through conscious effort. It is, like said earlier, a commitment with intimacy and passion in it. Before deciding on a relationship, one must first ask him/herself if he is ready to commit to a person for life, no matter what happens, because a “relationship” with a person might as well lead to marriage with him/her. “Relationships” should be dealt with seriously, because this is what determines a married life. Also, while still in this “relationship”, one should learn how to restrain him/herself from physical intimacy, because this might lead to pre-marital sex. If one truly loves another, one is more than willing to wait until marriage. Others might say that this is such a traditional way. but through “waiting”, one will know how much he/she means to the other, and this “waiting process” will be able to determine the intactness and wholeness of ones married love. As they say, “True love will always wait.”

Labels: Module 6