Unfettered Love

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by Sherry Chamblee

I recently read an article by someone who was declaring that all love should be without any sort of restriction.  

This made me think about some things. Should love be completely unfettered? Is there any restriction on love? Is there a proscription for how we love? Perhaps commands from God about where love should be directed, how it should be portrayed, when it should be reined in?  

Anything?  

I suspect that much of what our society today tells us is “love” is actually the epitome of selfishness. How many times have we heard the line:  

“I love what I’m like when I’m with you…I love how you make me feel…”  

That’s not love. That’s selfishness. It might be romance – but it isn’t love. Notice how many times we reference what another person does FOR US that makes us “love” them. Notice how often we say we “love” someone, and it creates jealousy or anger or elevated expectations in our minds. Notice how often we say we “love” someone, so we want them to only think of us in the best possible terms. I think our society has redefined “love,” then placed it on a pedestal as an object of worship.  

We’re taught through movies and TV shows and books, that the pursuit of love is the highest pursuit possible – that “love” should be the one thing we’re all trying to get.  And of course, I’m still talking about “love” as defined by our society – that feeling of romance that we now tend to associate with the word “love.” We’ve made “LOVE” our “god.” 

What I’m seeing though is that our “love” isn’t love at all. It’s something else. Maybe our society needs to come up with a different term for it, but it isn’t what God describes as “love.”  

Love in the Bible is not romance. It is not lust. It is not a warm, gushy feeling that makes you all goo-goo in the brain.  

The Bible says God is Love.  

The Bible tells us to love our neighbor.  

The Bible tells us to love our enemies.  

The Bible tells the older women to teach the younger women to love their husbands.  

The Bible tells us that love is unselfish – it doesn’t make demands on the other person.  

Love would die for the other person, even if that person never knew about their sacrifice. Love allows the other person to leave if they wish. Love doesn’t hide, doesn’t keep secrets.  

Love is learned. And only after it is learned, can love be lived.  

John 3:16 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  

John 15:13; Matt 5:43-45; I Cor 12:4-8; Mark 12:30-31; John 13:34-35; John 14:15; I Peter 4:8

About the Author:

Sherry Chamblee

Sherry grew up in various cities around northern and central California. This gave her all sorts of stories that sat and festered in her brain, waiting to be let loose. She eventually went to college in Wisconsin, where she met her equally frenetic husband, Rich. They have six (yes, count them) children, two dogs and a cat, and currently reside in a madhouse in the southern California area. As a family, they enjoy being active in their local church. Sherry spends her time writing when not caring for Granny, the kids, the dogs, the cat and any number of strays in the neighborhood.

Sherry Chamblee can be found at http://www.sherrychamblee.weebly.com Or check out her books at http://www.amazon.com/Sherry-Chamblee/e/B00BA06RJ2/

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