Reverence, admiration, adoration, all such terms are descriptors of the concept of love. Sympathy, compassion, pity, also are apparent qualities of love. But having the feelings of the former precludes the feelings of the latter. Yet we use the same work to describe them both.
This confusion of definitions has become a source of grave misunderstanding in our society. The love we may have for our fellowman is unclear, depending entirely on our opinion of that person. The great, the wise, the successful, the kind, the strong, the beautiful, the intelligent, we hold these people up in love and admiration. The lowly, weak, unfortunate, and pitiful, we hold these people down in love and compassion.
What kind of love do you feel for the man who has destroyed his life through drugs and poor decisions? What kind of love do you feel for God? Are they the same thing?
I believe that the over-use and improper use of the word love has corrupted its meaning. We are taught to love our enemies, the weak, the poor, the distressed. Instead we pity them. We justify this by claiming it is love, but it is not. Do you really believe that God holds pity for these of His children?
We love the things that make men great. We love things that are god-like. We love men and women for their quality. When we are told to love others, we are not being asked to love them for their weaknesses. We aren’t even being asked to love them in spite of their weaknesses. We are being asked to love them for their strengths. For you cannot love any other way.
We have become a society of a faltering and dying love. We applaud the weak and despise the strong. We are asked to give our all to the new definition of love, to compassion and pity, rather than our former love of heroes and greatness. We admire those who debase themselves so that others do not feel below them. We no longer glorify the efforts of the strong and determined, but instead the once estranged plight of the incapable and lazy. We have replaced our heroes with victims.
We are taught the virtues of humility, but have corrupted its meaning. Man is not a creature to be debased. We are not meant to remain weak or ignorant. We are not meant to restrain our potential, but to achieve and grow it. We are given talents to magnify them. We are meant to be great. Humility and greatness are indeed congruent, as Christ exemplified. Do you not believe that Christ knew who he was? He surely knew he was greater than us all. Yet was he not the exemplar of humility?
Humility and love are synonymous and closely related, and both their meanings have been corrupted in similar ways. Humility has nothing to do with debasing one’s self to the level of others. It is quite the opposite. It is being strong for others to look to. It is being willing to lift those who are not. It is seeing others for their strengths (love), and lifting them in their weaknesses. It is seeing your own weaknesses and striving to make them strong.
If we continue down this path of revering the weak and hating the strong, we will ultimately all become weak and despicable, and society will fall. We must despise weakness. Do not make the weak comfortable in their weakness, for that is not love, but instead push them to become strong.
Let us be great again, and again love greatness.
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3 comments:
I believe that gospel love is often based on gratitude (towards God) and often based on one's potential worth (godhood) towards everyone else. I'm not sure I would try and categorize it like you do, or categorize it at all really because there are so many manifestations of love (reverence, compassion, etc) that come from the same fountain depending on what the situation calls for and what the loved one needs. "Many attributes and feelings are embraced in gospel love: devotion, adoration, reverence, tenderness, mercy, compassion, service, solicitude, gratitude, kindness." ~ BR McConkie. And, "the highest manifestation of love on man's part is seen in his devotion to God (Deut. 6:4-9); the next, in his attitude toward his fellow man. (Matt. 22:34-40; 1 John 4:20-21)." BR McConkie.
Just some thoughts.
You both make good points...our ongoing challenge and quest is to understand and emulate perfect love...God's love...until it leads us to perfection. God IS love.
I think that love and glory are closely related. Love is what we give to those with glory. It's not gratitude, although love and gratitude typically go hand in hand. We are grateful for what they've done. We love them for who they are. We love them for their greatness, their perfection (or closeness to it), their glory. Compassion, again, is misconstrued today. Yes compassion comes from love, but love of one's greatness or potential for greatness, not of their weakness and lowliness. We have compassion for others because we can see the divinity in them.
So basically, I don't think there are many forms of love. I think there is and can only be one kind of love, and that is the kind we feel for God. There are different manifestations of that love, i.e. passionate vs. brotherly love, but it is all founded in the same admiration for one's greatness and glory. You cannot feel love for a weakness.
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