WHAT IS LOVE?

WHAT IS LOVE? – 1. Love is a complicated subject that cannot be explained or answered in a short time. Many people don’t understand it or know how to describe it in full, myself, too. But I just want to share what I know, although it is very little, too small, a tiny speck, an atom in the endless universe, but maybe it will helps someone, or just one, and that will make me happy. The eternal definition of love is True Love Never Fails. With that definition and look at the world, then we know that many people don’t know what true love is, because love has been failing everywhere, in every culture and in every circumstances. And whenever it happens, it hurts, sometimes very deeply, not because of love, but because we thought some illusions, some images were a real love. It hurts because real love was not there in the first place, nor at the beginning. And every time the heart gets hurt, it is devastating, affecting the whole body, so we have to guard the love in our hearts carefully, not only for our benefits, but for others, too.

WHAT IS LOVE? – 2. When talking about love, it is not only limited to the scope of love between men and women, but also love in all aspects of life, in personal life, in the family and in society. Love is an important foundation for human life to have standards, models and to have true happiness as well as peace and satisfaction. There are many people who misunderstand the meaning of love and when applying love in life, they often apply it according to personal feelings, according to their own views or according to social trends, even applying love according to the false propaganda of evil people in this life. Therefore, love is not only important, the foundation of human life, but applying love in real life is even more important.

People’s views on love are often influenced by personal ambitions, or by the trends of the times, or by the circumstances. For these reasons, love must be guided by the standards of the Bible, because God is wisdom, is eternal and never changes, so His standards of love are suitable for all situations, all times, and suitable for all people who know how to apply those standards. People often have prejudices against the Bible, so although everyone talks about love, desires to have true love, and pursues love, they continue to suffer, are disappointed in love, are bitter, hateful, and continue to think that love is just an illusion and not real in this life. This happens because people reject God’s standards and principles of love and refuse to apply them to the reality of life.

LOVE AND PATRIOTISM – 1. Every person living in this world wishes to have a roof to shelter from the sun and rain, and when they have one, they cherish it with all their heart, protect it and preserve it, not only for themselves but also for their loved ones, as well as for future generations. Likewise, every person who born in this world has a homeland, a fatherland. The country is the common home of those born in that country. Therefore, love for the homeland and for those born in the same country is natural. This is not strange, or surprising. But in the United States, because of the influence and deception of cunning people and evil career politicians, the American people are divided, have different views on the issue of patriotism, to the point that some are willing to kill others to prove their patriotism, even though it is wrong and brings serious consequences. This happens because many Americans do not know what true patriotism is, do not have a certain standard of patriotism, and are therefore deceived and taken advantage of by evil politicians, who use false patriotism to lure them into serving their plots to benefit their position of power in the government.

So what is true patriotism? The Bible has revealed it when it defines patriotism as the desire for a better homeland (Hebrews 11:16). This is a reality and a completely accurate definition of patriotism. No one wants the house they are living in to deteriorate over time, nor does anyone want to destroy the house that provides shelter from the sun and rain, warmth in cold weather, stability and safety in storms. In the same way, true patriotism is the desire for one’s country to be better, for every citizens to be warm, happy, safe, and for society to be peaceful in harmony and mutual assistance. Therefore, those who try to do that for the country are true patriots, and those who try to do the opposite of those standards, no matter how well they justify themselves, are just evil, deceitful, selfish people who want power and position for themselves rather than building a better country. Therefore, judges, who continue to release criminals who have committed dozens of crimes back into society so they can continue to kill or endanger citizens, are seen as evil, heartless, and unpatriotic. There are criminals who have committed crimes more than 10 times without any remorse but are still released by such judges, giving them the opportunity to kill and commit crimes again. The United States Constitution mandates that the government must insure domestic tranquility for all American citizens to enjoy, so when evil judges continue to release convicted criminals, they are in violation of the nation’s Constitution and cannot be allowed to continue in their positions.

LOVE AND PATRIOTISM – 2. Another typical example is that American companies only think about their own profit margins without thinking about the interests of the American people and the security of the country when they moved their production to China and other countries. This has caused damage to American workers and the middle class, especially making the American economy dependent on foreign countries. No country can become independent, prosperous and powerful if it depends on other countries, especially on those that are hostile to it. This shows that American companies love personal profits more than they love their country and their people. For their own personal profits, they did not think about making America better, not being dependent on foreign countries and and they did not help their people to have a prosperous life. On the contrary, they made America economically weak, to the point that President Trump is forced to use high tariffs as a necessary method to force those companies to bring their production back to America to help the people in the country to have jobs. If they were not forced like that, those companies would probably let America be weakened more and be destroyed, as long as they get high profits. That is selfish and unpatriotic.

The first principle and also the most important condition that can lead to true love is freedom. Without freedom, there is no true love. But many people have misunderstood the meaning of freedom and have applied it wrongly, affecting true love. Freedom in love does not mean one night stand, or many bodies count, then going separate ways without any real responsibilities for such a special intimacy relationship that far above animals’, because such freedom could be taken advantage of to satisfy or release the urge, or be treated as cheaper, safer than going to see a prostitute. Many people abuse such intimacy because of failure in self-control and in doing so destroy the special gift that God has blessed the married relationship between a man and a woman with. When a person later on gets into such a relationship, they don’t have that special gift to offer to the one they love. It loses its meaning because it is not special anymore, someone has already had it before or many people have had it repeatedly. True love is when you give the one you love the most special precious gift, not diamonds or money as many people think. Do you remember one of the most beautiful person who got one of biggest diamonds in marriage then later divorced in bitterness? But also there are so many people disdain that special gift and ill treat their spouses. Humans have destroyed the meaning of true love and true married relationship and blame others for the bitterness in their hearts.

But saying so is not completely hopeless for those who have experienced days or years of living in such a way, abusing freedom to satisfy the needs of the flesh that they cannot control themselves. Therefore, we still have hope, after misunderstanding the meaning of love, after abusing the most special precious gift in marriage, people can still find true love if there is a real repentance. It means never again such life be repeated. The hope lies in keeping the promise of marriage for life. The mistake that happened when we did not understand the meaning of true love can be forgiven, forgotten, as long as that way of life, that concept never returns again. But how many people really want that, when human nature is to go back to the old path that we have walked.

In God’s law, those who commit sins without knowing it are not considered guilty and are easily forgiven, so when a person understands the meaning of true love and decides to change their life through true repentance, their past mistakes are no longer counted, but a completely new life. In marriage, the person who can help them most effectively is their spouse in the marriage after a serious decision to give up the old way of life. People who truly love each other will support each other so that past mistakes do not become obstacles to their happiness, but become valuable lessons to share and advise the younger generation, for future children and grand children. True repentance, true love after mistakes can become useful memories to help themselves in marriage and useful lessons for many others who are looking for true love, true happiness in this life.

(to be continued)