Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
.. is she really in love or just stringing some poor sap along, that's the question..
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In Christian context, love isn't a temporarily overwhelming rush of affections and attractions; it's a consistent set of behaviours, clearly shown. Paul went into this in detail in 1 Cor 13. Romans 5:8 says that God first of all demonstrated (clearly showed) love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Similarly, the gospels say there's no greater love than this, that a Man laid down his life for his friends, and that Jesus "loved them to the uttermost".
Love flows beyond its borders. It gives when there's no return offered. It doesn't require reciprocity. When it's struck by hatred it yields, and when it's cursed it blesses. Yet it's undeniably active, and demonstrated: on Pentecost Peter said, "That which you see and hear I now will declare (explain) to you". The church can't hold it in and it streams into the world, unbidden.
But I stress that it doesn't seek reciprocity on earth. It doesn't require a return. The return is in heaven; on earth it's content to be "wasted", and spent.
Now contrast this to the earthly ways, who in their anxiety seek a return. Luke 6:34 "And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full." Love is not like that. It senses and seeks that which is above, and expresses itself through "that which is not", which fades away.
There's a story in Eusebius' Church History, in which the grandsons of Jude, named Zoker and James, are summoned before Domitian, who fears a return of the Davidic line. He asks of the kingdom they represent, and they reply that it isn't temporal or earthly, but rather heavenly and angelic. These were dirt farmers with calloused hands, not soft men with palace intrigues. They were truly "looking above, where Jesus is."
Love doesn't manipulate and control for temporal and selfish (earthly) ends. If you're in a relationship with an LCer where they don't give the freedom to express yourself, to hold independent thoughts and opinions, I wonder if they can truly love, or if they're caught in a thought-suppression system, and are fronting someone else's displaced anxieties.
With the FTTA, we were told unequivocally, "don't waste your time" with those who can't repay you in this age; instead go after the "good building material", the middle-class Caucasian college students. So I left, because there was no love. At the time there was no internet and I didn't know of Daystar and other Lee family scandals; furthermore I thought the doctrines were all first-rate. But they clearly didn't care about people, but rather about using people to build a system.