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Close Topic OptionsDo You Believe In Unconditional Love? - Page 2 of 2
Ok maybe we need to examine the type of love - Page 2 - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 20th Nov, 2007 - 3:42am
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Do You Believe In Unconditional Love? - Page 2
If love was not conditional then would it really be worth it?
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Post Date: 12th Nov, 2007 - 11:13pm / Post ID: #
Love Unconditional In You Do
| QUOTE (From the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew Chpt 5)) |
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. |
Seems pretty cut and dry to me. Love unconditionally, especially the people you think don't deserve it (as in not meeting the conditions you set for love).
Blessings have conditions. Relationships (such as marriage) have conditions. Contracts have conditions ... on and on.
Love should be unconditional if we seek to be like Christ.
 Message Edited...Persephone: Please learn how to use the Quote Tags here. See our Constructive Posting Policy. |
Do You Believe In Unconditional Love? Studies Doctrine Mormon
You have rightly said that we should love our enemy. But what is this love that we are talking about?
I firmly believe that the strength and amount of love that we show to others is strictly based on the type of relationship we have with the person. The love we have for enemies and Strangers is based on our relationship as Spiritual Siblings of our Heavenly Father. It can be strong, but it is not as strong as the strength of love that we have for our own children. We will never have the level of love for other people's children in this life as we do for our own. This is not a bad thing, it is just a fact of that relationship.
I do not believe that any Love can be as strong as a Husband and Wife relationship, save possible the love between parent and Child. But the Marriage relationship is one of the few that I have mentioned that can be terminated. Therefore, for Marital love to remain as strong, that level of love has some conditions. It is no different then the Love Christ has for his Church. If the Church is faithful that love remains constant. But if the Church is unfaithful and turns away then conditional "marital" love dictates that there be a separation(The apostacy). The Lord withdraws his spirit and a portion of his (marital) love until the Church can be more faithful.
He has however shown his patience for his church because he reaffirmed his love for the Church by gathering israel and restoring the Gospel.
Love Unconditional In You Do
Ok maybe we need to examine the type of love that there is. It is unfortunate that the English language has only one word for love which has many meanings.
In the Greek there are 3 words that describe three types of love. They are the following:
Eros, meaning romantic love, hense the word erotic comes from this root.
Phila- meaning brotherly love, hense Philodelphia which literally means the city of
brotherly love.
Agape- meaning Godly or divine love. Also the root word for the Greek word for
sacrament. which literally means "the love feast". This is the divine love of
God. It is used in the command "As I have loved you love one another". In
other words, You need to love others just as God loves you with Agape
(divine love)
So yes love is unconditional. The divine love of God or Agepe. This is the love of Deity. Eros, erotic love or romantic love is set to your marriage as Dbackers insists. This is a very different kind of love then Agepe. God does not have eros love for you and I. He is not romantic towards us. So yes this does have relationship driven conditions. We are not told to be erotic towards our enemies. This is a type of love that is between lovers. So yes this love is only unique between married persons and should be couples with agape.(divine love.)
Phila- brotherly love. This is the love that is described as "love your neighbor as thy self. " We are told to have brotherly love towards all. This is the love that Peter declares that he has towards Jesus at the end of John where Jesus asks John to feed his sheep.
However the greatest challenge is for us to have divine love. (Agape) "By this shall man know that ye are my disciples." This is far greater in the Greek then any other kind of love. It is far greater then erotic, or Phila. It is the love that God has for us. We are commanded to love everyone like Jesus loves them. It does not matter what relationship, we have with them. We are to love (agape) them like Jesus does. This is an unconditional love unlike Erose and to some extent Phila. No matter what happens in relationships. For example if our spouse are unfaithful, then we may no longer love with eros, but we are to continue to love them with the greater love agape. In fact Agape should be the greater love in our marriages, not the Eros.
Unfortunately in the English we really miss out the dept of the idea of love in the scriptures because they all translate into the word love. So I think when we talk about love in this chat, we are putting all the different types of love into one big concept, when clearly the scriptures do not.
Perhaps this can bring everything together.
TOPIC: Do You Believe In Unconditional Love?