Falling in Love with Love
Feb 13th, 2009 by ljkim
I think there’s a difference between loving someone truly (sacrificially) vs. loving “the idea of a person loving you.” It’s the difference between falling in love with a person and falling in love with love, a chemical reaction that happens in your brain.
True love loves the person…for lack of a better word, sacrificially. Loves the things itself, the person for who he/she is for his/her own sake the way someone open to nature can love the night sky or a great work of art. Fake love on the other hand, loves a person the way a dog loves his bone, for what the person can give you…validation, attention, glory… I’m calling it “fake” for lack of a better word, but I don’t mean it’s any less strong a feeling. Fake love is just as real as the real thing, but it’s fake in that it’s not really love (just the way a fake watch is still a watch), it’s more like a hunger. There’s some truth to the idea that people look at one another like pieces of meat…or candy.
St. Paul’s idea was that a man should love a woman (and vice cersa) as Christ loved the church, giving himself to suffer and die for her cause, that she could be lifted up and made beautiful…that two people should submit to one another as one submits to a cause, for its advancement at whatever personal cost.
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Shared this part with my manager at work
“St. Paul’s idea was that a man should love a woman (and vice versa) as Christ loved the church, giving himself to suffer and die for her cause, that she could be lifted up and made beautiful…that two people should submit to one another as one submits to a cause, for its advancement at whatever personal cost.”
And this was his response…
“It is easy for him to say he was not married.”
Haha!
He’s right, Paul did recommend singleness because he thought it was easier (considering what Jesus followers would have to do there).
But what excites me is that ANYONE who’s married can have this kind of love affair – it’s not like a sport only people with a certain build can play, or a profession only people with a certain IQ can enter… Any married couple can have a love affair that people write songs about, the kind that will seem to make every part of life more beautiful.
And although it’s hard – because it requires submitting and putting someone else first – but it tells us so much about God that THIS is what he commands his people to do. All the hard stuff God asks is really for us in the end.