Love is simple yet complex

In this post, I intend to both share some common Biblical scriptures as well as some of my own thoughts on love. I hope that you will share your thoughts following this blog, or privately if you are one of the few people who know me personally. That offer goes for not only this blog, but any of the “What If It Is True That” blog posts.

One of my favorite passages in scripture is the entire chapter 13 in 1 Corinthians of the Holy Bible. The ESV version as copied from BibleGateway.com reads as follows in its entirety:

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

    I'm not so bold as to suggest that I have anything to improve on the above scriptures, in fact, I have failed multiple times and miserably to love as described in the first seven verses of 1Corinthians 13. I could likely write a book about “Love” based on my own observations and experiences, but for now, I will just share a few thoughts that easily surface when I think about this subject. The first of which has to do with a conversation I had with someone when I was a teenager…

I said, “I love you” to this person and they responded with “what do you mean?” I guess I’m not sure what kind of response I expected, but it surely was not that! And yet, many years later, I still remember the conversation, which suggests that it had an impact on me. I don’t remember how I responded and yet I have asked the same question since when in that position to do so and have also thought much about how I would now respond if given the opportunity. Had I the chance to do so, I might have said things like when I say “I love you” to you, it means that I admire your boldness in making the choices you do in life, and I value your opinion more that most peoples, or I enjoy sharing time with you.

I encourage anyone reading this, not only to exemplify love to others as scripture suggests, but to also articulate it in words that flow from the depths of your being that can touch the soul of someone else. I believe that love can change but that love never ends. Love just “IS”. Love and sex can go together and yet they do not mean the same thing and one can exist without the other. Some believe that there is a bond that occurs with sex that creates a soul tie with another person. This connection can have more impact on our lives than we can imagine. The broken heartedness that can occur at the end of a sexual relationship is why God gives us rules about sex. God is trying to protect our heart. Love is a commitment and love is a choice!!

It would do us all well to keep Proverbs 4:23 in mind as we make our life choices. It states: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (ESV).


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