Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
If there is one thing that the current state of the world has shown, it is that it is ready to run itself to the ground for the sake of pleasing everyone; a goal that has never nor will ever be achieved for as long as divisive thoughts reign in man. However, there is a ground where many lie in false allegiance and that is the topic of love. I want us to take two of the most common ways to discuss love in the worldly sense and why they very much hide the blade of anarchy in what initially seems sincere.
Before we move on, it is important to start with the foundation. Love is indeed one word but, in the English language, has been used to blanket a lot of different forms of affection so for purposes of clarification, let us instead look to the Greek language for more definitive forms, not as an exhaustive list, but as a thorough one. The Greek holds many classifications of what the English labels as love; eros which translates roughly to the romantic love which we will discuss at length today, philia which is translated as deep friendship, something I feel has been more lost today and I will briefly explain why, ludus which is the playful love or more commonly referred to as a crush, philautia which is the self-love the world seems to promote, pragma which is translated as enduring love, mania which many will rightfully understand to be obsessive love, storge which is seen as familiar love for either family or loyalty to a nation and finally, agape, which is seen as love for all and under the Christian context, love for God.
We can see that these 8 words cover a lot of ground on love and add lots of nuance and context to each example. So why do we start here? Why is this important? Because ladies and gentlemen, a fundamental misunderstanding of agape for the sake of justification of the different types of eros is about to lead civilization to fall and it all starts with one very interesting phrase.
Love is Love, Right?
No, is the simple answer. Love is not love. Love is defined or rather for the sake of argument, needs a definition. Letâs get to it.
Not only has every single civilization had a clear outline of what love is, but many have also clear outlines of what love is not. The current postmodernism worldview would have one believe that it is easy to entertain the notion that love is nothing more than a human construct…until something that could never be defined as love shows up. When you see a child being beaten up so badly by their parent each night, you donât need anyone to tell you that what you witness is not love. When you see a woman going through an abusive relationship, you donât need anything to tell you what is wrong. When a cat is thrown violently off a live stream, you know. When someone is unfaithful to a partner, you know.
In contrast, when you see a woman race through a burning building to save her child, we applaud her. When we see children rescued from possible slave trade, we know. When a man rushes in the line of fire for his wife, we know. I could go on and on but the reality is plain. We are more than able to tell when we see moments that are objectively acts of love. We can argue all day about the chemical transaction but the deed was performed. Love has a definition. In fact, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that. Where we begin to have problems is where to draw the line between love and lust. The line between the moral and the immoral if you may.
More Than a Feeling
For the world currently, love seems to be defined in terms of feeling. That what you feel is right to do should be done and nobody should question you on whether you do right or wrong. In other words, as long as someone is doing something they feel is right, you should mind your own business. However, as we see in terms of our world today, this is absolutely not the case.
If a man felt like being racist or sexist, they would be attacked. If a man felt like being phobic, they would be canceled. If a man felt like stealing or causing bodily harm, they would go to prison. If a man lied, depending on the severity and those affected, it would range from broken trust to outright harm. I want you to notice a pattern where people do everything but mind their own business when moments like these occur. Before we get to the hypocrisy, let me point out why minding your own business doesnât work. Itâs because we werenât built that way. If you saw a community that minded their own business to the logical extremities, that society would not take long to fall. There are moments where not minding your own business is out of your affection. If your friend desires not to eat or withdraws because of depression, you would rightfully enter their space and be there for them. There are moments where not minding your own business is out of security. The police and the judiciary are daily in the business of not minding their business because they have the mandate to protect the law and order of a governed state. If you break the law, your privacy will be invaded by the appropriate authorities. As you gossip and talk about that person you donât like or donât agree with, do you know what you are doing? Thatâs right. You are not minding your own business. In good and in bad, minding your business is simply not an option. So, the people advocating for this are surely saying something else and indeed they are.
Mind your own business only if it harms my ability to sin.Â
Now, what I did here, is presuppose that sin, which is defined as active disobedience to God, exists and so in effect, God exists. I donât want you to miss this or feel like I am trying to play mind games. This article, like every article I make, contains bias but without bias. I would be presenting nothing new. From this point onwards, my presupposition will remain active. Allow me to now explain my statement earlier. This would be a great reason why sinners and believers currently agree on murder, theft and some forms of sexual immorality among others are immoral and should have punishment because if it happened to you, it would harm your ability to carry out your daily life of sin. If you are a heterosexual male who fears having all your options taken away, you would naturally side with Christianity, not because they are right but because they actively aid in your ability and freedom to sin. If you are a member of the LGBTQ community and you feel that you are being oppressed, then you would side with Christianity, not because they are right but because they actively can move the agenda for your cause and Christ is apparently nonjudgmental and affirming. Are you seeing a pattern? For as long as you donât harm the ability to sin, you are loving. But the moment you do start harming the ability to sin, it doesnât matter what intention you have, you are wrong. Let people do what they want.
This is why you will often hear the phrase âIt is not harming anyone.â This is what the world means by âLove is Loveâ even if some donât immediately see it that way. The problem with this is that this phrase opens up Pandoraâs box and the only amount of integrity the world once had is completely lost. If you believe love is not judging anyone, then you forfeit the right to judge sexual offenders and pedophiles and those who engage in bestiality. If a woman beats her husband, you donât get to talk because they can say to you, âIsnât Love, Love?â If a mass murderer were to visit a crowded area and at the end of the day say that he did it all for love, how do you begin to talk without sounding hypocritical? The truth is when you present this to anyone, they will quickly tell you, âThatâs not what we meanâ but they donât ask themselves the most important question here; Why canât it mean that? If you strip love of definition, how do you again argue otherwise? This phrase is used to protect people but at what cost? We are essentially trading freedom of eros for everything else. Because if it isnât already clear…
Sin Destroys Nations
âNow King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, âYou shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.â Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.
1 Kings 11:1-6Â
If there is anyone really interested in looking at the impact of sexual immorality in history, you will find that lots of nations fell prey to something sexual immorality like all sin promises; satisfaction. In Israel alone, sexual immorality led to them falling from a theocratic system to kings, and one king, in particular, Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, fell victim to sexual immorality and this split the land to two as a result. Sin does not just harm anyone, it harms everyone. The last few decades have seen a shift from a Christian stronghold with people feeling like they are finally engaging in something that the world has never seen before…but it has. Homosexual and heterosexual immorality has been having waves of influence throughout history with many people in power being not only sympathetic but active influence in both and each time it grew rampant, it always came at the cost of every empire it was involved in. This is because, and this will be a sting to be honest,
Sexual immorality, like all sin, is anarchy.Â
Weâd like to believe as human beings that we are capable of being moral enough to break some command and keep some in tandem but the well was opened a while back and if sexual immorality held any answers to satisfaction, it would have already been found in the 60s when exploration was sought…or perhaps a few thousand years ago before Christian oppression turned the world upside down. As such it was not and currently, we have more groups and more divided individuality than ever before and we are told that this is somehow the answer to the identity crisis and nobody seems to be asking why it will never be enough. Eros currently has the biggest influence in the world and many falsely believe the only way to love someone is to watch them basically self-destruct at every level. Evolution telling you that you are meaningless and now the LGBT telling you that you are formless. If you have to be the one who defines yourself, then be honest, your true worth is your own opinion. Isnât that sad? At that point, you have even less worth than a fictional character because at least they have authorship. Whatâs worse is that this idea of yourself has to be imposed on others and that anything less than that what you think of yourself is worthless at best or illegal at worst. What happens when you eventually crash and become burdened with doubt? Are we to doubt along with you? Are we to keep giving you the worth you imposed on yourself in hopes that you remember it?
If you have to give yourself worth, you probably have none. However, if you have worth defined outside of yourself, your worth is retained no matter what happens. The issue with a false understanding of love is a false understanding of identity. It harms you because you are trying to be something you are not. You are in effect self-destructing because of a false understanding of love.
Love Defined in Christ
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous personâthough perhaps for a good person one would dare even to dieâbut God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:6-11
If you have gotten this far, you might still have one last thing to turn to as defense; what if I was always made to love wrongly? You say that a good loving God did all sorts of things for me and judges me and stuff. Why did he make me seek something that truly was not his own design? Iâll tell you why this is your last peg. Itâs because you know that accepting that sexual immorality is a choice and the identity is your own decision says one of two things; you either agree that God made you one way and you chose another or you agree that the special title and orientation you hold loses value if itâs your own construct. So, it has to be something innate, something that has always been a part of you, because heaven forbid that you are similar in form to those insufferable believers of a horrible God.
It is a great question with a simple answer. Love.
God created you with a capacity to love but love implies choice. Because you were born in sin and you donât have a problem sinning as often as you want to, you could never choose God. No matter who or what tells you that God loves you, you have no good reason to listen to any of that. You want your love and for everyone to affirm your love because you are the most important thing in the universe. You will fight for everyone to get here so it feels like everyone is important but honestly, only you are important. The solidarity of sinners is only strong when their agendas align but when push comes to shove, selfishness is revealed. I know that because that is the same urge every sinner has. It is idolatry. Whether you like it or not, if you die in your sins, God will pronounce judgment and you will have nothing to say about it. You can deny Him now, you can fight those who preach Him but there will come a time when nobody will. This is why you can never find satisfaction in being in sexual immorality, whether heterosexual or homosexual, because they will not satisfy you. As long as you are important, every construct of love will fail.
God calls you to a different love, however. One that is not interested in pleasing you but pleasing Him. One that is not interested in holding your own opinion of things but holding His even when it inconveniences you to do so. One that will bring you joy because the only thing that will satisfy the bottomless pit of lust is when it is destroyed by eternal love. You will not be interested in your own affairs or being done right by but the affairs of others. You will not be interested in being served but in serving others. It is the love of others, it is agape. You will not need to affirm others; you will delight in them yet at the same time have sorrow over them. You will find others who donât tell you what they cannot do themselves but all run with the aim to Christ. Agape cannot be found in loving yourself, but in complete denial of self, you can love others without ceasing. If you want to love yourself completely, you can. If you want to love others completely, you will have to stop loving yourself completely. You will have to lean on a love that is not your own.
You will have to repent of your sins, hold to the righteousness of Christ and carry your cross in an identity that cannot be lost, isnât subject to whimsical change and represents something so concrete, you will have not to tell people you are a Christian. They will see it for themselves. You will not need to be affirmed, you will be completely understood by those who will love you and those who will hate you. Your move.