Faith, hope and love (:

Friday, January 14, 2011,1/14/2011 07:04:00 PM

The Difference Between Infatuation and Love

Text from:
http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn89/difference-between-infatuation-and-love.htm

So it seems that what most people are calling love isn't love. Just what is it then?

The simple truth of the matter is that our modern world has confused love with infatuation. Think about it: Almost every time we hear love referenced in popular culture, it's something people fall into. Unexpectedly. Accidentally. All of a sudden your heart is aflutter and you feel an intense attraction to another person. That pounding in your chest sounds like "love at first sight" rather than "raging hormones."

But the Bible makes it clear that godly love is a conscious choice one makes—an action, not an accident.

"The direction of infatuation is inward. The direction of love is outward. Infatuation is most often temporary and depends on reciprocation to survive. Love stands alone, depending on nothing for its survival. Love is an imitation of God, while infatuation is a recognition of our attraction for the opposite sex. Love is a way of life."

Time and place
Infatuation is, as Scruggs notes, a "natural attraction for a young person to feel for a member of the opposite sex." In other words, it'll happen whether you want it to or not.

The tough part we face, as Christians, is knowing what to do with that attraction. Experience has likely already taught each of us that such a feeling can easily blind us to reality, keeping us from seeing another person as he or she actually is and causing us to miss important warning signs.

It takes wisdom to be able to acknowledge an attraction to another person while at the same time keeping that attraction in check. While there's nothing wrong with being attracted to someone, we must be sure to handle that attraction responsibly, without giving in to its foolish desires or recklessness.

After we've taken the time to get to know the other person, to understand his or her values, personality and character as objectively as possible, to seek and consider God's guidance as well as input from trusted friends and family members, and after we've come before God to commit ourselves to that person for the rest of our days, then comes the time to get swept up in mutual attraction.

The book of Proverbs contains these happy instructions for the married man: "Rejoice with the wife of your youth, . . . and always be enraptured with her love" (Proverbs 5:18-19). It's worth noting that the Hebrew word translated "enraptured" can literally mean "intoxicated" as well. A husband and wife are then finally able to let their guards down completely, each always enraptured with the love of the other.

A time for love?
While being enraptured has a proper time and place within marriage, the Bible is clear that another type of love—that directed toward others—is to be timeless and without boundary. So important is true, godly love that Jesus Christ Himself emphasized it as the defining characteristic of Christians everywhere: "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

Our love—our outgoing concern for others—should be such a part of us that it defines us in the eyes of those around us. Love is not to be directed at just one individual or a select few, but the entire world.

What, then, is the real difference between love and infatuation? Infatuation is about pleasing the self. But love—love is all about becoming like God!

>>:D