Commentary: Readers have you ever been confused by love? I hate to admit it but I’ve been confused many times in my lifetime and I often wonder if I’m the only one who has had mixed feelings about the confusions? I’ve loved people and I’ve thought they’ve loved me too but many times I have gotten a big surprise and the love wasn’t as strong for me as I had thought.
It’s my personal opinion people can get confused by love regardless of how confident they may feel about their love for a person. I believe love hangs by a simple thread and it can turn immediately to dislike and many times to hate. I have problems oft times because those who profess to love me ends up hurting me the most. This plays havoc on a heart and a mind.
I think many times about family relationships and how things can go wrong within an entire family. They’re supposed to love each other and they’ll have a simple conflict and then go for years feeling anger and rage toward each other and their family too. They’ll not speak to their parents or their siblings over a simple issue and they’ll show "no" love for years and in some cases they’ll pass them right on the street and never look their way. Is this what true love is?
There are people we’ll become friends with and who we’ll consider like a family member to us and there’s a love and respect for them when a minor word may cause them to deceive and destroy what was thought to be a loving relationship between friends. Is this what true love is?
Parents can raise their children and provide them with a loving home and love them far more than they love their own lives and sometimes children will walk away from them over a simple issue and never speak to them again for years and in some cases never again. Is this what true love is?
I’ve found throughout life that love can hurt the heart and stir up confusions for people who have experienced such mistreatments and they’re left to be confused and to feel unloved and hurt. It’s my belief love is supposed to be eternal but I’ve found that love is words spoken but many times the words "I love you" are not real but used for the purpose of maintaining a relationship.
I’ve turned to the Bible many times for an explanation of love and to assist me in knowing how to handle love and its real meaning and to obtain a clarity about "true love."
I’m listing several Bible verses that has helped me and I hope it will help people they are as follows:
(1) In the Bible and in Proverbs 10:12 it tells people, "Hatred stirs up strife; but love covers all sin."
I believe this verse is telling people hate stirs up strife, confusion, and hatred between two people or several people, and when they truly love each other, they’ll forgive them and continue their display of love, respect, and kindness at all times regardless of any differences they may have. It’s better to forgive than to live a life of misery which ends up destroying the mind and causing it to become bitter and the heart to become hardened and uncaring.
(2) In the Bible and in Proverbs 13:24 it tells people, "He that spares his rod hates his son: but he that loves him chastens betimes."
It’s my belief this verse is telling people not to point their fingers of hate and rage at a loved one but to sit down and discuss the problem in a manner of listening and explaining the consequences of a wrong. It’s better to solve a wrong by explaining and talking to children than to beat them because beatings lead to hate and internal rage for the person.
(3) In the Bible and in 1 John 3:16 it tells us, "Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethern."
When people stops to think about how much God loved people and how he laid down his life for them, they should do the same for our brothers and sisters and our families. They should treat people as God treated them and never hesitate to turn away from hatred and rage but to show respect and love for one another.
(4) In the Bible and in 1 John 4:8 it tells people, "He that loves not God; for God is love."
In this verse it plainly tells people those who does not know love, does not know God because God is love. I’m a firm believer that if a person cannot love another person, they do not have a relationship with God. People must know God and read His word to know and to realize the love He had for His people.
(5) In the Bible and in John 15:13 the Bible tells us, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
It’s my personal belief that God is making people aware that He sent His only son, Jesus Christ, here to live upon this earth and then to die for the sins of people. This was done to show God’s love for all mankind.
I cannot conceive the depth of anguish and pain God suffered when He knowingly made the decision His son would be born to die for people’s sins and also when it actually had to come to fruition.
In doing this God demonstrated that out of love and concern for all people’s sins He sent His son to die for people’s sins; and through His son, Jesus Christ’s, death He provided people an option to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and to make them aware their sins were forgiven; and by knowing and accepting Jesus died for their sins they would have an eternal life.
Barbara Kasey Smith is the sole writer of this article.
Source:
King James Version of the Holy Bible and in the Old and New Testaments & in the verses stated in the article.