What is Love ?

[rosered]

  Hi All ,
  I have wondered what Love is  all my life
  I have some ideas about it and love it when something is quickened  and I can remember it  in the time of need .
  But wonder does anyone  have a  real clear  answer on what Love  is
  there seems to be many types of love 
but what is Love ?
 
love to hear your thoughts on this subject ..  rose  :HeartThrob:

[WhiteWings]

One of the questions in life that can't be anwered I think.
We can all experience it but writing down is impossible. All writings are just refering to known feelings.


http://www.thelovemovie.com/
http://www.love-sessions.com/whatislove.htm

[peacemaker]

Completeness, lacking nothing!

peacemaker :HeartThrob:

[rosered]

One of the questions in life that can't be anwered I think.
We can all experience it but writing down is impossible. All writings are just refering to known feelings.


http://www.thelovemovie.com/
http://www.love-sessions.com/whatislove.htm

  Thats kinda how I feel trying to describe Love  BroT  aka WW  .

Not an easy expression/Word  to explain.....
my own lack of it maybe ?LOL .

my Dad when giving me some counsel  in a bad time of my life 
told me love is  not all feely starry eyed goo and ga ga , thrills and delight , though that can be  described as a type of love to me
  He said love is a genuine  concern for another  person more than yourself
where their needs are  more important than your own 
I had also asked him what love is Dad , cause I really dont even know what love is supposed to be ?
and to me at the time it was what I needed to hear , it stuck ! 
I remember to this day  :HeartThrob:

  thanks for answering  me  :thumbsup:  rose
  I know its a tough question  hee hee .... :icon_flower:

[rosered]

Completeness, lacking nothing!

peacemaker :HeartThrob:

  Thanks Peacemaker ! 
Yes the scriptures say this is fulness of Jesus Christ !
  How does Love  conclude/to bring to an end; finish; terminate, to decide, determine, or resolve to  completness and lacking nothing though ?  LOVE

Thought this would be good for folks to  try an explain in thier on understanding  what it is ..
I have noticed many times we all have different  ideas when  answering posts , it does surpise me at times just how different we  interpet 
each others  views
   thanks for your contribution  :thumbsup:

  :HeartThrob: rose

[WhiteWings]

He said love is a genuine  concern for another  person more than yourself
where their needs are  more important than your own 

Wise words and very much alike the 'video' don't talk but listen.
As said great words of your dad I fully agree with but if you look at his answer a little closer you will see he just replaced one unexplainble word with another one.
Love => concern
Now define concern....  :winkgrin:

[CHB]

Hi rosered,

To me, love is the kind that Jesus showed mankind by laying down his life for us. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends".

Even greater love is someone laying down their life for their enemy. To me this is really the kind of love we all should have for each other. It takes love to offer help to someone who has done you wrong but to give your life for them, is the greatest love of all.

CHB

[rosered]

He said love is a genuine  concern for another  person more than yourself
where their needs are  more important than your own 

Wise words and very much alike the 'video' don't talk but listen.
As said great words of your dad I fully agree with but if you look at his answer a little closer you will see he just replaced one unexplainble word with another one.
Love => concern
Now define concern....  :winkgrin:

cool bro T! yes he/ my dad  was wise in many ways and was helpful  so many times in my life

  and I looked up concern in the bible and dictonary.com  hee hee  :winkgrin:  surprized too! love expressed as  concern :HeartThrob:

  con⋅cern
  
–verb (used with object) 1. to relate to; be connected with; be of interest or importance to; affect: The water shortage concerns us all. 
2. to interest or engage (used reflexively or in the passive, often fol. by with or in): She concerns herself with every aspect of the business. 
3. to trouble, worry, or disquiet: I am concerned about his health. 

–noun 4. something that relates or pertains to a person; business; affair: Law is the concern of lawyers. 
5. a matter that engages a person's attention, interest, or care, or that affects a person's welfare or happiness: The party was no concern of his. 
6. worry, solicitude, or anxiety: to show concern for someone in trouble. 
7. important relation or bearing: This news is of concern to all of us. 
8. a commercial or manufacturing company or establishment: the headquarters of an insurance concern. 
9. Informal. any material object or contrivance.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1375–1425; late ME concernen (< MF concerner) < ML concernere to relate to, distinguish (LL: to mix for sifting), equiv. to L con- con- + cernere to sift


Synonyms:
1. touch, involve. 3. disturb. 5. burden, responsibility. Concern, care, worry connote an uneasy and burdened state of mind. Concern implies an anxious sense of interest in something: concern over a friend's misfortune. Care suggests a heaviness of spirit caused by dread, or by the constant pressure of burdensome demands: Poverty weighs a person down with care. Worry is an active state of agitated uneasiness and restless apprehension: He was distracted by worry over the stock market. 8. firm, house.


Antonyms:
6. indifference.Act 28:31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. 

Strong's G4012 - peri
1) about, concerning, on account of, because of, around, near , touching
  Thanks for pointing this out  to me  :thumbsup:

[rosered]

Hi rosered,

To me, love is the kind that Jesus showed mankind by laying down his life for us. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends".

Even greater love is someone laying down their life for their enemy. To me this is really the kind of love we all should have for each other. It takes love to offer help to someone who has done you wrong but to give your life for them, is the greatest love of all.

CHB

YES! CHB , I have tought of this too!   being able to forgive   shows   REAL LOVE and does make things better  to continue a relationship  with !
  when you put aside your  hurt /anger  for  anothers  being able to forgive and love anyway  , you got something very spiritual and powerful  working / going on inside you NOT OF this world !
agreed ! thanks sis ! it helps alot  :HeartThrob: rose

[sparrow]

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13

I posted this somewhere else. The topic was "love covers all wrongs." I think someone had mentioned that love would not cover over the wrongs committed by rapists and murderers.

LOVE NEVER FAILS.

God is LOVE.


YES. So many seek an eye for an eye...
But Justice is when LOVE covers over all wrongs.
JUSTICE... DIVINE JUSTICE.... is LOVE covering over all wrongs.

Folks aren't seeing far enough. Their eyes are set on the shallow circumstances. These TEMPORARY fleeting circumstances of this short life. Look deeper. Why does the rapist rape? Why does the murderer murder? I believe that it is a lack of LOVE in their heart. REAL love. If they loved, they would not harm. They are lacking. Remember how powerful love really is. It's not just some "fuzzy feel good thing." Love is the most powerful thing. ALL seek love. God is love. ALL are really seeking God. It's what every soul yearns for. Deep down. and ALL will eventually be filled.

If God is love...
God is longsuffering.
He perseveres.
HE NEVER FAILS!!

What caused a person to do harm to another is an ignorance of love.
I truly believe that lack of love is the SOLE reason behind all of the harm that we inflict upon each other and our world around us. Remember what Love IS: God IS love...Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails

Do you all realize the power of Love?
This isn't some fuzzy, feel good, little benign thing.
LOVE is the most powferful thing in this whole universe.
More powerful than anything mankind could possibly come up with.
God is love. GOD!

Love covers over all wrongs.

The rapist and his victim? To be honest, I can picture in my mind's eye a day where they will be reconciled and actually love each other.
Hard to imagine?
LOVE NEVER FAILS.
The murderer and his victim and his victims families... will one day...love each other.
Hard to imagine?
LOVE NEVER FAILS.

The rapist will no longer BE a rapist.
The murderer will not longer BE a murderer.
LOVE is what will ultimately transform them.
We are ALL in the process of transformation.

Our puny little tiny brains cannot even BEGIN to imagine the POWER of God. The power of LOVE.  There is nothing impossible with God.
There is nothing impossible with LOVE!

The rapist is a human being. (I say this as a woman who has herself been through some difficult situations so this isn't some flippant thing I'm talking about.) The rapist is a human being first and foremost above anything else. A human being who does not understand or have love in his heart.
The love that God wishes us to have in our heart. The love that pushes us to love our enemies and turn our "enemies" into friends in our hearts and our minds. The rapist is an extremely weak human being. It won't be this way always. One day... YES, I see the rapist and his victim being reconciled.

This is just one example of so many, countless things that will be overturned and set right. LOVE CONQUERS ALL.
Love conquers unbelief.
Love conquers hatred.
Love conquers fear.
Love conquers ALL.

LOVE NEVER FAILS.

Why do we not believe it?

Is it that hard to imagine?
I don't think it is.
Look around you.
Look at all of the unbelievable things he created all around us.
Ponder it! Look at how just...unbelievable God is.
Look at this magnificent creation all around us.
Do you really think that the fleeting evils that mankind does out of a lack of knowledge of love is more powerful than GOD?

When you ponder loving your enemies.
It becomes easier and easier to imagine the huge picture of reconciliation.
When you can start to forgive those who have wronged you.
When you can even try to start to love them, even if they are long gone from your life, if you can do this in your mind and in your heart and in your soul.... you will slowly start to understand just how LOVE NEVER FAILS.


I see a beautiful picture of all coming to the knowledge of the Lord...
And all being reconciled.
Love covers over ALL wrongs.


Love conquers ALL.
No matter how far in the darkness someone goes, God's hand always reaches farther.
His LOVE always reaches farther.


God is Love.

WOW.

How huge is that?!!

[Paul Hazelwood]

  Hi All ,
  I have wondered what Love is  all my life
  I have some ideas about it and love it when something is quickened  and I can remember it  in the time of need .
  But wonder does anyone  have a  real clear  answer on what Love  is
  there seems to be many types of love 
but what is Love ?
 
love to hear your thoughts on this subject ..  rose  :HeartThrob:

I think I understand Love but am unable to fully comply to it.   For instance,  I can start out wanting to help someone and from time to time I help someone and they didn't even know it and years later I have no concern that they ever know it or return the Favor.

However, there does come a point where I get tired of helping and don't want to, I often do things anyway, and work pretty hard to keep those feelings at bay because I know I am doing the right thing.

On a culminative level concerning helping others, I can sometimes feel cheated, so in reality,  I think I know what Love is and know that it will take God to change me in this regaurd.

[sparrow]

Just to kind of illustrate more of what I'm saying about Love being the most powerful thing.
Love transforms.
Non-Love (what is DEVOID of love) DESTROYS.

Start watching at about 1:52 - about 3:15 or so.

Gary Ridgway is a man who committed the most atrocious acts of murder. He killed about 50 women. This was a man who was raised in an abusive home of non-love. This non-love, is I believe what helped to send Gary down this horrible road of unfathomable destruction. I am not giving him excuses. Obviously he is mentally ill, but this lack of love in his early life helped to shape him. He destroyed so many lives, and he destroyed so many families. The rage displayed toward him in the courtroom from the victim's families is understandable. The murderer's face is set in stone. The snowball of hate has just grown larger and larger and pulling more and more innocent victims into the destruction. First Gary. Then his victims. Then his victim's families. Then strangers affected by the story, start to hate. The hatred and non-love is a destructive force. However, it will not win. LOVE will conquer all. Even this mess.

You see a small glimpse of it when one father stands up and forgives Gary for killing his daughter. This one act of compassion is what breaks Gary's facade. Look at his face crumble.
Something has gotten through.

Now imagine, as our father takes Gary through His refining fire... as He is doing with ALL of us...and picture in your mind, our Father ultimately having compassion and mercy on Gary.. Imagine the scene. And imagine all of Gary's victims and all of Gary's victim's families, one day being reconciled and no longer enemies. And the love that has conquered all of this.
The love that has washed over all and transformed ALL.

This is the power of love.
NON-LOVE is a powerful destructive force.
However, LOVE is more powerful.
LOVE CONQUERS ALL.
No matter how far we venture into the darkness... God's hand ALWAYS reaches farther.
ALWAYS.


GOD IS LOVE.
Nothing is impossible with God.

LOVE CONQUERS ALL.

[Tim B]

  Hi All ,
  I have wondered what Love is  all my life
  I have some ideas about it and love it when something is quickened  and I can remember it  in the time of need .
  But wonder does anyone  have a  real clear  answer on what Love  is
  there seems to be many types of love 
but what is Love ?
 
love to hear your thoughts on this subject ..  rose  :HeartThrob:

Well, I know that "What is Love" is a cool song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqW5MZySdNU

xD

[Tim B]

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13

I posted this somewhere else. The topic was "love covers all wrongs." I think someone had mentioned that love would not cover over the wrongs committed by rapists and murderers.

LOVE NEVER FAILS.

God is LOVE.

Hey Sparrow, I haven't read all of your post, but I just saw the above (bolded) text and immediately thought of this verse in Proverbs. It used to be one of my favorite verses (and should still be, honestly lol).

Proverbs 10:12 (New International Version)

12 Hatred stirs up dissension,
       but love covers over all wrongs.

Proverbs 10:12 (Young's Literal Translation)

12Hatred awaketh contentions, And over all transgressions love covereth.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: The "simple" answer for me is; God is love; God is a Spirit; God's Spirit IS love. Blessings....

[peacemaker]

Completeness, lacking nothing!

Thought this would be good for folks to try an explain in their on understanding what it is ...

A complete explanation for me (as a man  :laughing7:), is outside the realm of expression in physical words; more of an action.

peacemaker  :boyheart:

[peacemaker]

Sparrow,

What you posted brought tears to these eyes/heart. Looking forward to the day, when there are no more tears.

TB,

Good Lyrics and vocal in the background. Reminds me of the little girl's voice in August Rush.

[Shadow]

TINST

[Gab]

People have already made much better posts than I could have anyway, so I will simply say this:

Love is God; God is love.  To experience love is to experience God, and to know love is to know God.  None of us can see God - but all of us know who he is.

[Redlettervoice]

.


Singing..................

Lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeee
is a many splendored thing!!!
It's the April Rose, that only grows........
In the early spring.............

Love a young heart.  I'lll always have one.

Love to think about the "kinds" of love,we have experienced.
The family type.........the eros type, and the
agape. 

God how we thank you for your LOVE.
And for those people that we have seen your LOVE "manifested"
thru IN the FLESH>

When you need a friend, you need some skin on him'/her.

You can make it alone, but it's good to have that human love
and especially the person with AGAPE in him/her.

Oh, I am getting all loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[WhiteWings]

:cloud9: The "simple" answer for me is; God is love; God is a Spirit; God's Spirit IS love. Blessings....

I want to add: Card is cheating :winkgrin:
Ever concidered writing a dictionary?
Love. ermmmm means love  :laughing7:

The question of RoseY, as I understand it, is explaining what love is.
You can't explain a word by using that word. Just as in that game "Party & Co"

:laughing7:

[Cardinal]

:cloud9: The "simple" answer for me is; God is love; God is a Spirit; God's Spirit IS love. Blessings....

I want to add: Card is cheating :winkgrin:
Ever concidered writing a dictionary?
Love. ermmmm means love  :laughing7:

The question of RoseY, as I understand it, is explaining what love is.
You can't explain a word by using that word. Just as in that game "Party & Co"

:laughing7:

:cloud9: ROFLOL....Should I tell you now or later that I've never heard of that game?

And I did explain what love is; it's a Spirit. No one said; explain what love DOES, she asked what it IS.

Geez......BTW; in my new unabridged dictionary it says, "WhiteWings:  a :icon_jokercolor:

:winkgrin: :grin:

[WhiteWings]

:cloud9: The "simple" answer for me is; God is love; God is a Spirit; God's Spirit IS love. Blessings....

I want to add: Card is cheating :winkgrin:
Ever concidered writing a dictionary?
Love. ermmmm means love  :laughing7:

The question of RoseY, as I understand it, is explaining what love is.
You can't explain a word by using that word. Just as in that game "Party & Co"

:laughing7:

:cloud9: ROFLOL....Should I tell you now or later that I've never heard of that game?

:cloud9: Next reply? Ok?    :icon_jokercolor:

And I did explain what love is; it's a Spirit. No one said; explain what love DOES, she asked what it IS.

:cloud9: Spirit? So love means means korsakoff? Agreed  :icon_jokercolor:

Geez......BTW; in my new unabridged dictionary it says, "WhiteWings:  a :icon_jokercolor:

:winkgrin: :grin:

:cloud9: I can't believe that's the primary defenition. I sounds much to nice  :icon_jokercolor:

[rosered]

  WOW !!!!! AWESOME GUYS ALL OF YOU , i AM EXCITED TO READ THESE GREAT  POSTS!!  thanks so much
I got behind , we are having  water and well issues and had to run to town  2 days in a row  now to buy parts  and stuff 
I come back here and  see all this  WOW , yes I asked my hubby on the way to town what is Love  and he said the same thing peacemaker  love is more of an action  :thumbsup:
Sparrow awesome contribution !!  thanks sis ,  God is what love really is 
Card great add on there , simple , I love simplicity 
and Time great song , lol , that actually ran though  my mind what I was posting this  thread  ha ha ha!  thanks for the humor   bro T aka WW

  that makes love  expressed  sweeter  for sure  :winkgrin:

Red you are a great sister as always   good  words ! 

   and Thanks Paul  and you all for helping me  clear some cobwebs  in my  foggy brain
   God love and bless you all ... rose  :HeartThrob:

[ducktapehero]

To me, love is when you care for a person more than you care for yourself. It's simple but it's a definition. Of course it doesn't fit when you claim you "love" good food but I think that's more a weakness in the English language than anything.