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Ringer
Jar of Clay
Christianity has a reason to equate God with love so I don't think it's a term that is thrown around without merit. I can't speak for everyone's beliefs though.
gnomon
Well-Known Member
It's one thing to talk of God(s) love. It is a characteristic.
To say God=Love doesn't really mean anything. It leads to equivocation in some instances but pretty much neuters both terms in all instances.
Scuba Pete
Le plongeur avec attitude...
I have never disagreed more with a statement in my life.
gnomon
Well-Known Member
gnomon
Well-Known Member
I don't know about that.
Confucianism
Buddhism
Taoism
Jainism...which actually includes conquering love
Shinto
Voodoo
Some, if not many, of the neoPagan faiths
Animists
Shamanism
Even Judaism, Islam and Christianity posit love as a characteristic among many whether than a straight equation.
The Sikhs, on the other hand, say that the formless God is not hate thereby implying God is love. So there's one.
It seems that only modern, individualized religious belief completely detached from the vast majority of religious traditions states God is love. So why not just say Love....
...and do away with God.
edit: I know. I'm no fun at all.
Confucianism
Buddhism
Taoism
Jainism...which actually includes conquering love
Shinto
Voodoo
Some, if not many, of the neoPagan faiths
Animists
Shamanism
Even Judaism, Islam and Christianity posit love as a characteristic among many whether than a straight equation.
The Sikhs, on the other hand, say that the formless God is not hate thereby implying God is love. So there's one.
It seems that only modern, individualized religious belief completely detached from the vast majority of religious traditions states God is love. So why not just say Love....
...and do away with God.
edit: I know. I'm no fun at all.
lunamoth
Will to love
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[b] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
gnomon
Well-Known Member
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[b] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
John was drunk when he wrote that. Everything was love!:run:
Bad joke. I'll stop.
lunamoth
Will to love
Scuba Pete
Le plongeur avec attitude...
Good wine is a labor of LOVE. Go ahead and prove me wrong!
Don Penguinoini
Modi.
Very true. That reinforces my point, too. Also, that means that god would need to do an action, from an emotion, so, god isnt love, but wants it and promotes it.
Instead of debating the nature of God here, I am inclined to ask you to explain more fully what do you mean by Love? Is Love a caring thing? Is it partisan? Is it detached and allows people to make choices? Is it demanding, and requires obedience like some paternalistic parent? Is it a spiritual bond? Is it sentimental? Does it bring Peace? What if the waters of life are not calm, is there still God's love then?
Don Penguinoini
Modi.
I was just waiting for that question.
Scuba Pete
Le plongeur avec attitude...
Let me make this perfectly clear: Yes.
OK, I will try to make it even clearer:
Sometimes God calms the storm.
Sometimes he just calms his child.
True love is seen in sacrificing to meet the needs of another. It is best characterized by a baby's dirty diaper.
The baby can rarely tell us what it needs: only that it is unhappy!
It's NEVER pleasant to do.
It always involves a change!
They never really appreciate our "sacrifice".
It's all too easy to say that we will lay down our life for someone we love. But it takes real love to wash and massage their feet at the end of a long day when you are overly tired as well. You can tell your proclivity to make the BIG sacrifices by the consistent small ones you make.
Ummm, at this point I have to tentatively answer "No."
I'm more inclined to say that God IS - and that all dualities (including love and its opposite) flow from that.
I used to say that God is "neutral," but confused some people because they thought I was saying that God doesn't choose sides.:areyoucra I mean it more along the lines of polarities. God is not one side of the coin or the other. God IS the whole coin. God is not one side of a magnet or another. God is the the whole magnet.
I've missed ya buttons! :hug: