Love

[James_Lai]

John 3:16 answers that question for you. Of course if you don't believe the bible to be true then you cannot know the love of God.

OK, God is loving. My question is, why? Why is it? And why are we required to be loving, to love?

Analyzing love, I see it’s always combined with the idea of unity with something or somebody else. Also with giving, with sacrifice. Giving up your own interests for the interests of another. So this conveys an idea of sharing energy and resources, which also implies contact with another entity.

It seems that there’s an illusion of separatedness, and love encourages intelligent beings (humans) to seek unity and sharing…

It seems to indicate to me that God promotes the idea that the whole world is ONE, united, that we are all one, not separated… Thus the analogy of the human body to represent a loving and caring church, for example. Each organ is integral (connectedness) to the whole, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant and all organs and systems work towards a common goal (unity).

So Love is modus operandi, the framework of God’s algorithm for His creation. However, the question why implies a final Goal, not just the what and how, the essence and the method….

That is a huge and big mystery to me.

It’s as if God is hiding it from us, trying to either test or perfect or motivate us, I dont know, or we are incapable to see or understand it in principle. On a simplest level, the purpose of Love is continuation of the cycle of life for as long as possible… Also growth or development, and self-expression. Perhaps progress in knowledge. But deeper on the spiritual level, in regards to moral evolution, I don’t know… I have no idea… Maybe it’s something to do with a new level of spiritual growth? Similar to enlightenment, liberation from the wheel of Samsara and reaching Moksha or Nirvana… Becoming a saint in Christianity. Then again, why? What’s beyond these superficial goals?

From the natural science and engineering perspective, the talk of Love brings up system design and operation thoughts for me… So we’ve got a system. We upload a software to the controller unit (religion, philosophy of life) with the task for the components to operate together for the common purpose of self-preservation (love and perfection). We have an energy source (God), a system designer and maintainer/operator (God), we have the components (people), we have destructive forces and processes (Satan, hate and sin), we have wear and tear (aging, sickness and death) with an MTBF (average lifespan) and component self-reproduction (birth of new life), redundancy (a symmetrical body with two of many parts), correct operation and strict following or the controller command signals (holiness and righteousness) etc etc. What is this machine doing??? Why??? Noooo clue….. Not even a remotest idea…. Each machine, each system has an ultimate purpose, a job… Never an accident!

 

[James_Lai]

I have designed and implemented quite a few systems… Supported operations… Hardware, software/firmware, networking… There’s always a goal, a task beyond the system itself… There’s end users, those who benefit from it’s work. It’s a tool…

I can’t accept “just because” answer… “God wanted company”? Entertainment device? Like a TV or boombox? Hmmm…. I don’t like this idea… Though very well might be so… Maybe a battlefield or even a weapon against an evil of the Universe? Like a tool of war? Scary. Also a possibility. And I can go on and on with different ideas…

My imagination is running rampant…. No answer. Seems we are not really encouraged by God to know. He’s quite reluctant to lift the veil… I know, the Bible promises in the afterlife we’ll see clearly, not like through an opaque glass… But not in this life right now… Why? Why is it deliberately kept a secret, a mystery? Maybe if the components learn of the bigger picture outside the closed system they know, this causes glitches in the main software, like a computer virus that can corrupt the code and slow down the machine or if spreads enough, render it utterly useless…

 

[James_Lai]

All the above is just my random thoughts, no claims of any of it being true…

 

[FutureAndAHope]

Hello.
It seems to me all religions are basically a human outlook at Love.
Why is Love required by God? Why so many actions of God in the Bible are clearly unloving and how you can reconcile that with the idea that God is Love?

The bible says that God has given man a conscience, we know what is right and wrong inately.

Rom 2:15 This proves that the conscience is like a law written in the human heart. And it will show whether we are forgiven or condemned,

It is no wonder then that religions all include things about being kind, and generous. However, a closer inspection of many religions shows that there is a lot of hating and violence.

As for Christianity, God teaches to love people. But the bible also says that those who choose evil (for their whole life) will suffer a terrible fate. God is severe, very hard on sinners (people who do not live His way, and love others).

Rom 11:22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

As for some of the misunderstood passages of the bible see Answers to Difficult Questions | Everybody Matters Ministry

 

[FutureAndAHope]

There was a man in history, who, like God with the flood decided on a “final solution” to the problem of existence of people who were not fitting to his standard. We now equate this man to absolute evil. The Biblical God does the same, on a much larger scale. Why do we have to take this “final solution” any differently in His case?

When you investigate the story of the flood throughout the bible you will see that it was not a judgment on all of the people who perished in the flood, the bible shows some of those who perished through physical death still received eternal life. It was a way to overpower the evil in civilization, and restore earth to peace through one chosen righteous family. See the following for a biblical examination of the flood in scripture Why did God us a flood in the day of Noah

 

[angelsaroundme]

Love allows you to see, not only God as God is, but humans, animals, angels, and all of creation, in the fullness of their beauty. Like God is a great light and all the wonders He has made is stained glass reflecting that light with miraculous colors.