How many times have we heard this expression? Songs have been written -"Love, Love, Love,....love is all we need"..."All we need is love"...If we all had this "love" we could have peace. What is love? What is "it" that we "need"?

With Valentine's Day approaching here in the US, I have been thinking and meditating on the subject of love. "I love you." "Do you love me?"

Looking for an answer for this "love" led me to my "source" -Scriptures. [Bible]..."Love one another"..."Love your enemies"...

1 Cor. 13:31 - 13:13:
"You are earnestly desiring the higher gifts. But now I will show you a
still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and of I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up
my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is
patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or
rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the
truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass
away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass
away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect
comes, the partial will pass away. 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. 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. So now faith, hope and love abide, these
three; but the greatest of these is LOVE."

Where have you heard these words spoken? Yes, probably at a
wedding...only, the love in this passage is not the kind of "love" you
would associate with a wedding: "eros". It also isn't the kind of love
that we would associate with "philia" [brotherly love]. The love in
this passage refers to "agape", that unconditional love like God has for
mankind. This kind of love sees "others" vs "self". This kind of love
rejoices in "truth". This kind of love sacrifices for the sake of the
"other". In marriage, the couple promises to take care of each "other".
Unfortunately, so many are distracted from this truth. How many
marriages fail because of distraction from this truth? How many times
do we focus away from the "other" and back on "ourselves"? In these
"words" from 1 Corinthians, the God I place my faith in is showing us a better way.
Scripture is where I can still find a more "excellent way" for my life. The focus is
taken away from ourselves and placed "higher".
Our God gets nothing from us yet takes care of us. When a couple marries, they make this
promise...not just in good times, but when one gets sick...to take care
of that person unconditionally. That is agape. Love. The focus is on
the "other", not the self.

When we look through a framed piece of glass, we can easily see through
that glass to the "other side". When we put something shiny behind
it...like silver, representing all the "material" things that "get in
the way", then we can only see our own reflection. We focus on
ourselves. Our focus should be on the "other". That is agape.
Unconditional love.

So, yes, all we need is love. All we need is to see just the "other" not our "self". All we need is to see clearly and not let anything "get in the way". What a difficult task. Even people who claim to "love" each other have trouble with this.

How true the statement that Gandhi made..."There is no way to peace, peace is the way.". Love is that peace. May we all find the way.

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