Can love die?

[arunangelo]

Love never dies, because, true love is unconditional. It is not a feeling or emotion, but a Spirit called, God. This Spirit is the Force that propels us to sacrifice our own interest and surrender our own will to unconditionally seek the good of others. To love, is to say yes to God, and reach out to others. Therefore, when we tell another person, “I don’t love you� or “my love for you is dead�, it means we have rejected God.

[Divine Insight]

Love never dies, because, true love is unconditional.

Well that rules out the Biblical God.

The Biblical God's love is highly conditional.

Simply refuse to believe in him and he'll cast you into eternal hell.

Are you going to call that "love"?

I think you'd have a hard tell selling that to anyone as "unconditional love".

[Charles]

[Replying to post 1 by arunangelo]

BUT
“Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’". Romans 9:6–13

Did HE never love Esau or did HIS love change to hate in response to Esau's free will decisions of rebellion?

If He never loved him then GOD created him knowing he would end in hell...which abuses and blasphemes HIS loving righteousness and justice.

[Divine Insight]

[Replying to post 1 by arunangelo]

BUT
“Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’". Romans 9:6–13

Did HE never love Esau or did HIS love change to hate in response to Esau's free will decisions of rebellion?

If He never loved him then GOD created him knowing he would end in hell...which abuses and blasphemes HIS loving righteousness and justice.

Even if his love did change because of Esau's free will decisions, then it still wouldn't be unconditional love since it would be loved based on the condition that we only use our free will to choose what God wants us to choose.

The very idea that any God who ultimately cast people into hell for any reason has unconditional love to offer anyone cannot be made to work. The Biblical God's love is extremely conditional. In fact, according to the preaching of Jesus only few will make it into the kingdom of heaven. That can only mean that the vast majority of human souls that the Biblical God creates have not met his conditions for love.

So it's not only conditional love, but apparently only a few people will meet the required conditions. The vast majority will go to hell.

So anyone who claims that the Biblical God has unconditional love to offer hasn't been paying much attention to what the Bible, and Jesus have to say about this.

In fact, didn't Jesus even speak about those who do make it into heaven? He said that some will be greater and others will be lesser in heaven. So apparently even of the few who meet the conditions for heaven, among those, fewer yet have met the condition for God's actual love. The rest will be "lesser" in heaven. Whatever that means. It seems to me that this implies that they won't be thought of very highly. (i.e. not loved as much as others)

So according to the Bible and Jesus, there are not only conditions required to obtain God's love, but there are even further conditions required to obtain a higher degree of God's love than some others may be eligible for.

I think the Bible makes it crystal clear that the Biblical God places many conditions on his love. There's no way it can be said to be "unconditional love".

So then according to the OP:

Love never dies, because, true love is unconditional.

Well the Biblical God has no unconditional love to offer anyone. Therefore the Biblical God's love can indeed die, if it's not already dead. And based upon the above quote it most certainly can't be said to be "true love" because the quote claims that "true love is unconditional".

[Purple Knight]

The Biblical God's love is highly conditional.

Simply refuse to believe in him and he'll cast you into eternal hell.

Are you going to call that "love"?

I think you'd have a hard tell selling that to anyone as "unconditional love".

I'm glad you posted this. The OP reads like I ought to be ashamed for leaving someone because she cut off my naughty bits or was slowly poisoning me.

When people accuse other people of being incapable of unconditional love, it's very literal. You, Purple Knight, ought not to care what they do to you, you must still love them and treat them as if you love them.

That last bit's important. I don't get the convenient excuse of, well, yes, I might have pushed you down the stairs, but I still loved you.

God... god does though.

That's why perhaps the OP should not make me feel as bad as it did.

[William]

arunangelo: It is not a feeling or emotion, but a Spirit called, God.

William: Okay. So love="a spirit called "God"" according to the OP argument...

arunangelo: This Spirit is the Force that propels us to sacrifice our own interest and surrender our own will to unconditionally seek the good of others.

William: So this "Spirit God" is a compelling "force" but does not make us do what we might not want to do...like "unconditionally seek the good of others".

Rather our unconditional acceptance of this Spirit God is seen IN Us when seen Through Us, as our individual actions are seen to be "unconditionally seeking the good of others".

It is not that we are being forced to "unconditionally seek the good of others" but that the compulsion to do so is the only thing which propels us to that agenda.

arunangelo: To love, is to say yes to God, and reach out to others.

William: So we say "Yes" to the Spirit God and this enables Us to reach out to others in the kindness of the agenda.

arunangelo: Therefore, when we tell another person, “I don’t love you� or “my love for you is dead�, it means we have rejected God.

William: I would say - "Rejected the idea of a "Spirit God" even existing."

The rejection comes because one cannot see wherein such a Spirit God would place us in such a position while claiming to be "Unconditional Love".

This reason for rejection likely has many facets twinkling their own particular interpretation of The Light.

The antidote is to find a way to forgive the Spirit God and just get on with "unconditionally seeking the good of others" rather than simply mimicking the idea we are well hated for being placed in this predicament.

Doing so will replace the desire to react to others with “I don’t love you� or “my love for you is dead�

[Dimmesdale]

Love never dies, because, true love is unconditional.

Well that rules out the Biblical God.

The Biblical God's love is highly conditional.

Simply refuse to believe in him and he'll cast you into eternal hell.

Are you going to call that "love"?

I think you'd have a hard tell selling that to anyone as "unconditional love".

Consider this quote of the Bible:

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." - Romans 1:18-20

You are right that there is a condition to the receiving of God's love - belief. But this acceptance should be obvious given that we all have a sense of God's truth that we have, but fight against because of our sin. This is a moral failure on our part, not God's.

But, while the receiving of God's love is conditional, the nature of God's love is UNCONDITIONAL given that, once faith gets off the ground, the rest is taken care of. God wants to love us, but he can't love us if we perversely refuse to open the door to that Love.... It depends on us as well as God......

[nobspeople]

Love never dies, because, true love is unconditional. It is not a feeling or emotion, but a Spirit called, God. This Spirit is the Force that propels us to sacrifice our own interest and surrender our own will to unconditionally seek the good of others. To love, is to say yes to God, and reach out to others. Therefore, when we tell another person, “I don’t love you� or “my love for you is dead�, it means we have rejected God.

Love doesn't die because, much like a rock, it's not alive and thus, has no ability to die.
If everyone were to disappear tomorrow, love would disappear too. Love only exists within humanity. No humanity no love. Or hate (funny how that works).

[Dimmesdale]

Love dies everyday in this world. It's called betrayal.

In fact you would be hard pressed to find any permanent form of love in this world, at least among humans. This is why trust is so precious, and I assume is exalted in religious literature as faith, among other reasons.