The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Is love an emotion?

Evangelical Universalism
#1

Greetings all. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Anyway, this question has been on my mind. Would appreciate input.

My current thought is that love, especially the Godly love that lies at the heart of our faith, is not an emotion. I say this because love, so far as I can gather, HAS emotions. The whole gamut, actually. And they always involve love’s object or objects. Love can be sad. Love can be angry. Love can suffer grief. Love can have joy. Love can regret. Love can laugh. Love can feel every sort of emotion we can imagine, excepting only the most negative things that love simply can’t abide. (Thinking Paul’s description of love to the Corinthians.)

This leads me to the conclusion that there is far more to the apostle John’s statement that “God is love,” than I have heretofore imagined. So too the idea that we Christians should be known by the love we exhibit (the person of Jesus dwelling within us?).

Anyway, I am typing from a phone and can’t really flesh this out as much as I would like. Any thoughts if what I am driving at makes any sense?

Love to all,

Andy

#2

It make a lot of sense to me, Andy. I think love is self-sacrificing action to serve another, especially when they have a need.
I think some people use the word “love” to describe an emotion.

The scriptures command us to love. You cannot command someone to have an emotion. Emotions come and go. To “like” or “be fond of” is an emotion. If you dislike a particular individual, and someone tells you to start liking that person, can you do it? No. You cannot obey that order through your will. However, the amazing thing is, if you begin to love that person, and serve him in his need, you will be more likely to be fond of him.

The Greek verb for love is “αγαπαω” and the verb for “like” or “be fond of” is “φιλεω”. Unfortunately, the latter is often translated as “love,” too.
Not once in the New Testament is anyone commanded to “φιλεω” but there are many commands to “αγαπαω”.

There is one place that might be construed to be a command to “φιλεω.” Paul exhorts Titus to teach the older women to bring the young women to their senses in order that they (the young women) be fond of their husbands and children. (Titus 2:3,4) How would the older women go about doing this? I am not sure how the older women would go about this—possibly by example. But I’m sure it was not by direct command.

#3

I would think the concept of Love, especially as it relates to God, would cover many emotions, actions, schemata, and more.

It is an emotion, as when God loves us.
It is action, when Jesus died on the cross for us.
It is a response, a way of being, a pivotal point from where a being can make all their decisions from.
It is a cause…to do it all for love.
It is an image of a being who cares more for the welfare and good of others, than for themselves…as in " no greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…
It is so very many things…a way of life is another. A gut response to every situation with compassion and unselfish giving of one’s self…
It is the core of God…who made us; sustains us; doesn’t give up on us; orchestrated the universe for us; and seeks us for an intimate relationship, which He has ordained since eternity…

We often think of 1Corinthians13 as a wedding prayer or poem…but, I do believe, it is a description of God, (note the underlined) from whom all love flows.

The Way of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends.**** As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

#4

Thanks Paidion and Dandelion for your thoughts.

I guess I have been pondering this mostly in the context of John’s assertion that God IS love. And like you, Dandelion, I see that verse in the 1Cor 13 sense. But this idea of God actually BEING love is what tugs at me to see love in something other than emotional terms.

I don’t know. Perhaps I haven’t really thought this through enough to express myself properly.

Thanks for sharing!

Andy

P.S. Lol… I probably should have put this in the Philosophy forum.

#5

Okay… I believe what I am getting at is this: love is not an emotion, but rather a spirit. In God’s case it is with a capital S. In our case, the lower case. But it is a spirit nonethess in my view.

From that spirit of love gifted within us come the gifts and the emotions the Lord would have us display to the world. Edit: Those gifts and emotions are a product of love. Perhaps even the inevitable product of that spirit called love. If the spirit within us is something besides love, then we have a serious problem! End edit.

Emotions may come and go. They may wax and wane. But a spirit is enduring.

It gives me a new perspective about what Paul said about faith, hope and love. Faith is where we stand. Hope is our possession. But love is our spirit. It is who we are supposed to BE in the same sense that Love is who God is.

Anyway. I think I am gettin closer.

Love,

Andy

P.S. It also occurs to me that all spirits produce similar ranges of emotions. Love can get angry just as a spirit like hatred can get angry. But the spirit from which anger springs makes all the difference.

#6

Sometimes emotions spring up in response to things that are passing through us. Sometimes passing from the well of of our own heart. Sometimes entering from the heart and mind of another. I can see love as the power to govern those emotional responses more than the source of them. Because of love I can moderate my anger, even if it is justified. Because of love, I can hold eros in check if it is calling me to violate agape. Because of love I can endure the loss of a loved one without becoming bitter or despondent.

#7

You know, that’s almost exactly what I’ve been thinking! That’s pretty cool that we had the same idea. The way I’ve been making sense of it is that humans have three components, so to speak: body, soul, and spirit. An action is bodily and an emotion is soulish, but love is spiritual - it causes emotions and actions, but it is not intrinsically either emotion or action, because it’s higher than both. The idea of love being a spirit is something I hadn’t thought of, but it makes perfect sense if God is spirit - thank you for sharing that!

Agape,
Anna

#8

Wow. I think you said it perfectly. Not so much the producer of emotions but the arbiter maybe?

Anyway, thanks very much!

Andy :slight_smile:

#9

Thanks Anna. God is spirit. And and He is love. I think that is cool.

Agape back at ya. :slight_smile:

#10

Andy, I definitely agree that love is a gift given to man and inherited from our Heavenly Father.Truth, wisdom, forgiveness, compassion, the ability to think and reason, creativity, etc. etc. are also gifts that come from the Spirit of God who created us. I have trouble with the idea that the Holy Spirit was given to man only after Jesus died. Did the people living before Christ never love one another? Did they never know truth or wisdom, etc.? Of course the Holy Spirit was with them, just as He is with us today. God’s Spirit can be found in our hearts and minds should we seek to find Him.

#11

Andy, you mentioned that if the spirit within is something besides love then we have a serious problem. I think evil people love, they just love something other than God. One of the ten commandments is “Thou shall not commit adultery.” I think the meaning of this is that we should not give our love to ungodly things.

#12

I don’t disagree with any of that. :slight_smile:

#13

But where does adultery, or any sin, come from? Certainly not from love. Right?

I would say it’s certain that whatever spirit might lead someone to do evil is something other than love.

Thanks for making me… and helping me… continue to think things through. Keep it up! I need and appreciate it more than you know.

Andy :slight_smile:

#14

The way I see it, God did not create man to be a helpless creature as some may think. He gave us the wonderful gifts of His Spirit because He loves us. We are His sons/daughters. The things that we have been given are very powerful. If used properly, the possibilities of what we can do are endless. However, if we use them unwisely they will destroy. An example might be giving a car to a kid who doesn’t know how to drive. The parable of the talents illustrates how we are not to waste the things God has given us. I would say that one can love in ungodly ways or love things other than God. For example, a lover of money becomes greedy. Self righteous people have an over amount of love for themselves. Some love to hear gossip because it makes them think they are better than others. We can love material objects and stop at nothing to get them. There are many that love having power over others which gives them a high, making them think that they are perhaps some kind of god. To me, this would be love not focused properly on the things of God.

#15

In these matters you are not talking about love. You are using the word “love” but are talking about “a fondness of” or “a liking of.”
This comes out in these verses:

In each of these verses, the phrase translated as “love of money” is actually a compound word with the word “φιλεω” (phileō, to be fond of) combined with the Greek word for “money.” That phrase ought to have been translated “fondness of money.”

You cannot love money or other material things, or gossip, etc. You can only have a fondness or liking for these things. You can love only people. Love is a particular kind of action, the service of people, often in a self-sacrificing way. You can also be the kind of person who serves only himself. That’s self-love, which I think if the only undesirable kind of love.

The Greek word for the verb “love” is “ἀγαπη” (agapā, usually transliterated as “agape”) and in the New Testament is always applied to persons only (including God), with three possible exceptions. The word occurs 109 times. In examining these, I found only three instances in which it could be argued that the verb “love” is used with non-persons as its object. Sometimes “love the world” and “love his nation” occurs, but “the world” refers to the world of people, and “his nation” also refers to people.

Here are the three possible exceptions:
John 12:43 contains the phrase “love of the praise of men.” However, that could be considered to be self-love.
Rev 12:11 speaks of “loved not their lives even to death” which could be considered to be the opposite of self-love.
Finally Heb 1:9 uses the phrase “loved righteousness.” I think this means much more than merely having a fondness for righteousness. I think it refers to serving the cause of righteousness, and therefore serving people.

#16

Paidion,there are many who have killed and been killed over their lust for power and money. I would say that the feeling they have for it runs much deeper that just a fondness or a simple liking for it. I would say that it would be an impure desire/ love/passion of the heart; a love that has been defiled or contaminated.

#17

I would call that lust, then, and not love. A passionate, idolatrous fondness for something could certainly be a deep-running feeling - but if God *is *love, then how could the essence of God be defiled or contaminated?

#18

By man