I fully agree that there is a huge difference between "love" and being "in love". I remember well doing a series on Wednesday nights at Calvary's Love going through each of the things love is from 1 Corinthians. None of them did I find disgusting (or whatever word fits best). All the attributes of love are noble and show the depth and richness of what love truly is.
I don't find being "in love" really that bad either. By "in love" I mean the emotional, desire someone might have for another. The second half of my blog was showing how even though from an intellectual standpoint it may be distasteful, I still am capable of it and even enjoy, or hope for it.
I love God. I am in love with God. I wish I loved God more. I wish I was more in love with Him. Because I love God I will pray and study his message written to me and do my best to live in a way that would please him. Because I'm in love with him I'll be thinking about him all the time. I can't stop talking about him whatever the situation. I'll listen to one particular worship song crying and singing along for hours on end because something in it resonates at that moment with my love for him. I wish I loved God more. I wish I was more in love with Him.
In the same way (but also different) I love other people. I try to be patient and kind with them. I don't hold grudges. I seek to protect them. You can go through the whole list from 1 Corinthians 13. I don't always and never well do these enough because I'm not perfect. But because I love others I try. There is nothing disgusting or distasteful about it either logically or intuitively.
It's the being in love that, even while I am logically repulsed from it, I am intuitively drawn to. While my brain says, "this is idiotic" my heart says, "I know. Isn't it great?" I don't want to be in love... but I long for it.
I've heard it said that this "in love", this emotion, is the springboard from which a lasting love relationship is born. I would say this is nearly always true with the way we do relationships and marriage in America. I think it is often true in our relationship with God. Just think about the fire and passion we so often see in a person who has recently come to Christ. They're in love.
But the verse in Hosea isn't talking about a new relationship. God (Hosea) is trying to get Israel (Gomer) to fall in love all over again. I think it is vital for us in our walk with God to have moments, to have events that cause us to fall in love with God like it was the first time. In the same way (but differently) it is vital for a lifelong couple to have those moments and events as well. That's what God (Hosea) is talking about when He will lure her into the woods, and speak gently to her, and give her all that stuff. It's so she can love him like she first did. Why is it so necessary? Because things that we do as a part of love: all the patience, kindness, forgiveness, humility, trust, and the rest. We might still do them out of obedience. We'll do them out of love when and only when we stay "in love".
That is why the scripture I quoted last week is followed with this:
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"I promise that from that day on, you will call me your husband instead of your master."
Hosea is yet another proof that, what we in our modern world refer to as "romance," is natural to any creature, as long as it does not go over the border, as long as God is still the primary "husband" and is present in all actions of love. For demons, too, know how to love. Call it lust or whatever you like, but it is a form of love, a demonic light, a selfish love. May we never fall into that trap!
i apreciate you and your opinion. this encouraged me today! god used your words to clear up some things i have been thinking about. i bet i will read this a couple more times. you are so refreshing!
This was a cool refresher of what love is =D probably the greatest thing in the world =P -to love God and to be loved by God secondly ourselves & others!
Reminds me of this verse in Matthew 22 The Greatest of all commandments "Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, mind and soul!" followed by "love your neighbour as yourself" the whole law summarised in those two commandments!! Awesome stuff this love =D
