“every man might have need of others, and from hence they might be all knitt more nearly together in the Bonds of brotherly affection.”
Winthrop defines love as a “bond or ligament” that knits human beings together (and human beings to Christ). Human beings, sadly, are not very good at knitting themselves together. The problem, not surprisingly, is rooted in the sin. Because of Adam’s fall, “every man is borne with this principle in him to love and seeke himselfe onely.” Even worse, human beings really cannot do very much about their selfish dispositions. Instead, they continue in self-love “till Christ comes and takes possession of the soule and infuseth another principle, love to God and our brother.” Thus, love among Christians “is a divine, spirituall, nature; free, active, strong, couragious, permanent; undervaluing all things beneathe its propper object and of all the graces, this makes us nearer to resemble the virtues of our heavenly father.” Christian love “rests in the love and wellfare of its beloved.” “wee must bring into familiar and constant practise; as in this duty of love, wee must love brotherly without dissimulation, wee must love one another with a pure hearte fervently.”
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If they safely reach Massachusetts, God will have ratified the covenant. If that occurs, the pressure is on. Should they “fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnall intentions,” God will break out in wrath against them. ” Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke,” Winthrop explains, employing a most appropriate metaphor, is for the colonists to actually remain “knitt together, in this worke, as one man.” Should they fulfill the covenant, God will bless them, and “men shall say of succeeding plantations, ‘the Lord make it likely that of New England.'” Winthrop’s most famous passage uses ample hyperbole: “wee shall be as a citty upon a hill. The eies of all people are uppon
As the regions began to expand and develop, their motivations for settlement helped to mold their societies. New England was a place where men sought refuge from religious persecution and was established as a haven for religious refugees. Despite this reason for settling, the New Englanders still attempted to spread their own beliefs of religion. As illustrated by John Winthrop in his Model of a Christian Charity, he preached to his fellow colonists that “we shall be a city upon a hill” (Doc A) exemplifying the Puritans’ aspirations of a Holy Utopia. He and countless other New Englanders practiced the belief that they must all work together. They were determined to “mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work.” The Articles of Agreement plainly laid out the basis for the New England region. These articles made New England a cosmopolitan mix of rich and poor families, all being in possession of land and resolute in doing God’s work (Doc D). However, while the New Englanders settled to create a Holy Utopia, the people of the Chesapeake were concerned not only with their religious freedom, but also ...
to the beloved” (pg. 6). In this he is discussing the absence of moral responsibilities in
One reason everybody needs a friend in life is because one tends to get lonely. In the book Of Mice and Men by John
Through life, people experience many kinds of love. Many people often believe they love someone, when they actually do not because they may not know what the word means. As much as we want to understand love, it is still simply indescribable. As C.S. Lewis tries to explain it in his book, The Four Loves, it is still a mystery as to what love truly means. I believe in order to know what love means, one must experience it. It is quite true that went two individuals are in love with each other, they know it and can feel it. No matter how much love is studied and looked at, every individual must experience it to understand it. Along with this love lies circumstances which lead people to either happiness or destruction. That is why love can be divine or demonic.
Bernard then demonstrates how God deserves our love. Bernard locates himself and his hearers within the teaching of the Fathers, and as such sees no need for polemics on matters of doctrine. For one who is secure in the arms of the Beloved, only love is needed to go on loving. Bernard presents a progression in this journey of love, four degrees of love.The first of which is the love of self for our own sakes. In our fallenness, this tends to destruction.
""You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself"." Catechism of the Catholic Church. Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2006. Paragraph 2309. Print.
The bible teaches that the greatest endeavor is to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves. While it is true that love is not a feeling, it is certainly something that can be felt. Love for God (or anything else) means to delight in Him and to desire (or long for) His presence (Psalm 42:1). Love involves the affections of our hearts, so much so that theologian Charles Hodge (1972) said, “Love of necessity involves feeling, and if there be no feeling … there can be no love” (p. 240). Being aware of the affections of our hearts can give us a clue to the things about which we truly care. After all Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21 The New International Version). Emotions will not give us truth, but they will inform us as to what is going on the
Love is a word commonly used but, unfortunately is rarely truly represented in our actions for another person especially when we say we “love” them. In our modern culture people, will tell people to prove their love however, not in ways that are truly expressing love but instead expressing lust. Many of these requests actions used to show “love” are often selfish, lustful acts. These professions of “love” often included sending sexually explicit pictures or doing sexual acts or favor for one another. However, these are not pure intentions of longing to be with another person in the unity of God, but rather selfish demands that warp the dignity of a human being and warps the original vision of love. So, they keeping following the degrading, selfish demands of their so called “lover”. These relationships often fall apart at the mentioning of a commitment to one another because their motives are not toward truly devoting their lives to one another. When ones freely love another person, give their lives to one another, even when things do not goes as planned, and never degrade or take away each other dignity and are in unity God they find the true meaning of love.
...importance of virtue here is that, virtues are needed for living well; But in order to obtain
I have heard many different accounts of what it is to love someone - to care truly for that person's best interest, to be willing to sacrifice one's own life for that person's well-being, and so on, the list is infinite. To be sure, these accounts all have a measure of validity; there are many different forms of love. However, there is one aspect that all of them have in common, which is the same point at which I think they fail to capture what it really is to love someone: they are too altruistic. Humans, it seems to me, are essentially self-centered creatures; and I do not intend that statement to have the extreme negative connotations that usually accompany the term "self-centered". I mean it in the most literal sense: humans are centered around the self. Much as we may try, the self is un-transcend-able. At this point in scientific and spiritual progress, we cannot ever truly experience anything through another person's frame of reference - all that we can know for certain is that which we think and feel. Thus, it makes no sense to speak of love as a sort of "leaving the self".
“Genuine love ought to be founded on the mutual recognition of two liberties; the lovers would then experience themselves both as self and as other; neither would give up transcendence, neither would be mutilated; together they would manifest values and aims in the world. For the one and the other, love would be revelation of self by the gift of self and enrichment of the world.”
This type of love is the love that God has for His own children. This type of love is what was displayed on the cross by Jesus Christ” (Crier, 2015). The New Testament says multiple times that God is agape love, showing that God is the ultimate, most self-sacrificing love. Throughout the Bible God provides for His children out of love and even punishes them out of His love for His children. “Much is made of God's wrath and punishment in the Old Testament, but when God punishes, it is with reluctance… In fact, God often pleads with the Israelites to stop doing wrong and repent so that he may bless them” (God’s love, n.d.). Love is discussed hundreds of times in the Bible, both showing God’s love and in command to love others as God has loved
Love is not just an attribute of God's character ... It IS God! (1 John 4:16) It is the very essence of God's being. In John 13:34-35, we are commanded to love one another. This command is not referring to a physical affection or emotion, but a purposeful, voluntary SPIRITUAL affection; an unselfish concern for the well-being of others whether or not we feel they are deserving of our love. Even our enemies are to receive our love despite their attitude, or behavior toward us. (Luke 6:27-28) For despite our unworthiness, God loved us and made the greatest sacrifice to prove it.
What is love? Love is a very special and meaningful word to each human being. Each human being has his/her own thoughts about love to guide himself/herself to land safely and smoothly into the kingdom of Love. Without this preconceived idea of love, people would be acting like a blind person searching for the light with thousand of obstacles in front of him.
love is a description of ideal life in the family, in the church, and other