What Is Love?

 

QUOTATION

 

“First of all, I do not believe the thought initiating lust is a sin until acted upon.”

 

 

Barry Denzil Haney

 

SCRIPTURE

 

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:16

 

REFLECTION

 

What is love? Is there a difference between worldly love and God’s love?

 

A team of scientists at Rutgers, led by Dr. Helen Fisher, divides love into three categories: lust, attraction and attachment.

 

In her article, “Love, Actually: The Science Behind Lust, Attraction, and Companionship”, Katherine Wu tells us the following happens when you fall in love:

·       Oxytocin, which is considered the "love hormone" responsible for our feelings of attachment and intimacy, is released. 

·       Dopamine is released, which activates the reward pathway in our brain, causing a "motivation/reward" affect. This is where the "addiction" part of love comes in. We seek out the reward of love even through obstacles that may be dangerous or painful (a cheating spouse, etc.).

·       Norepinephrine, a hormone similar to dopamine, is also released in the initial stages of love (lust or infatuation) and this causes us to become giddy, energized, and euphoric. 

·       During sex with a partner, cortisol levels lower. Cortisol is the primary "stress" hormone that is released in intense situations. Having less of this helps us ease into a more relaxed and vulnerable state, which is oftentimes why "meaningless sex" with someone turns into something more; you're vulnerable and have just gotten a big dose of hormones that make you feel attached and infatuated. 

·       Serotonin levels drop—this is important to note because the brains of people who have been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) also have lower serotonin levels. This leads to speculation that being in love can make you act with obsessive-compulsive tendencies.¹

 

According to worldly wisdom, love provides a chemical feedback in our brains, an addiction, something we have no control over. Our human drive or motivation to stay in love is based on a chemical response in our brain not an emotion. Sounds cold, impersonal, and dark doesn’t it? Satan has corrupted God’s love in the secular world. God’s love requires both truth and love. Satan has corrupted God’s love in today’s world with a love without truth, or truth without love.

 

What does God tell us about love?

 

In John 4:7-12, John tells us this about what love is:

 

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

 

John does not pull any punches! Genuine love comes from God and is not because of a chemical response in our brain.  If we have God’s love within us, we will love one another as He loves us, with no conditions. We will love those we like and those we don’t like! God tells us to love one another, to love all people. Because in the final analysis, we are all sinners, and despite this, God so loved us that he sent His son to earth to pay the price for our sins. We are able to spend an eternity with our Creator, because we are saved by Grace through faith! 

 

PRAYER

 

Our Heavenly Father,

 

Thank you for Your love! Help us to recognize

Your love in our lives. Help us reject love without

Truth or truth without love, which represents 

Satan’s corruption of God’s love!

 

Thank you our Father for helping us to love

One another as you have commanded us to do.

Help us to accomplish what You would have us

do to accomplish what You have planned for us!

 

In the precious name of Jesus our Lord and Savior,

 

Amen!

 

SONG OF WORSHIP

 

I Feel My Savior’s Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiBbCsfRghg

 

God Bless You,

Barry

 

1 Wu, Katherine. “Love, Actually: The Science Behind Lust, Attraction, and Companionship.” SITN, February 14, 2017. https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/love-actually-science-behind-lust-attraction-companionship/.