by V R Rutledge

Created on: July 12, 2008

More words have been written about love than are stored away on all subjects combined, including the stored words on Love. Poems, letters, essays, books, epistles, short stories, and every other kind of writing from graffiti to stone tablets have had love as their subject. Through all of this, we still don't have a certain definition. Are there many forms, or is Love truly one single thing? Is love eternal or fleeting? Questions plague the answer, because we must know what we are considering before we can define it. A horse is a magnificent animal, but it is not a cow.

The Bible has this to say about Love. Love is not patience, but patience is a part of love, Love is not kindness, but love is kind. Love is not envious, nor is it jealous, but you will find jealously and envy associated with those who claim to have love. Love is not arrogant, nor is it rude, these things are banished by Love since Love does not take joy in that which is wrong, Love rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love never fails. Only three things are eternal, faith, hope and love, and of these three, the greatest is love.

Christians are admonished to love one another, to love God, their neighbor and themselves. Considering the attributes of Love, I suspect that I have never met a Christian, but I have known people who were trying to be Christians. It is said that God is love. He would have to be, to allow the world to continue to exist. I suspect that there is no system of beliefs which can endure, save it include love among its basic tenets. Love is inherent to mankind. A baby without love, or at least the illusion of Love, will perish. I suspect the same is true of adults. If you go long enough in life bereft of love, you will die of loneliness and heartache. You cannot live on faith alone, nor can hope sustain you beyond a certain measure, but with love you can survive almost anything.

Love is only one thing, it is varied in the way it appears, but at its basic level love is simply a single force, the greatest force in the universe and it underlies creation itself. What, you may ask, of romantic love? Isn't that different? Consider this poem (again from the Bible) as an answer.

Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
'in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is comely.
My beloved is mine and I am his.
Set me as a seal upon your heart,

However it manifest, Love is the single greatest invention of God, and his greatest gift to mankind.

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