"Love Is a Feeling to be Learned"

The following is adapted from a book I picked up today while clearing my bookshelf. God's perfect timing, as usual.

By listening to human reason, we cannot protect love. It has to be protected by divine will.

The trend today is to question divine will in the sense of love.

"Did God say?" they ask, like the serpent asked Eve in the Garden of Eden.

"Is it not love to shorten the torment of waiting by permitting pre-marital sex?"

"Is it not love to furnish high-schoolers with contraceptives?"

"Is it not love to allow your marriage partner to have sex with someone else if he is in love with that person?"

I remember how, during the time of Hitler, a film was shown in Germany which told the story of a doctor whose wife had an incurable disease. In detail the film showed how she was tormented by her sickness until her husband killed her with an overdose of sedatives. When he as put on trial for murder, he defended himself by saying: "I loved my wife."

Here, God's commandment: "Thou shall not kill" was questioned in the name of love.

The film was shown in 1940 and was used by Hitler as a psychological preparation for the killing of the incurable and insane, for exterminating life which he judged unworthy of living. The end was the assassination of six million Jews in the gas chambers of the concentration camps.

If we seek to set up the standards of love ourselves, we fall into the hands of the devil. When Germany questioned the commandment "Thou shall not kill" in the name of love, she fell into the hands of the devil. When we question today the commandment "Thou shall not commit adultery" in the name of love we fall equally into the hands of the devil.

Since we do not know what love is, love has to be protected by the One who is love Himself. There is never a contradiction between love and divine will. There is no action of love which goes against a commandment of God.

We always hurt our neighbour (i.e. people around us) when we break a commandment, even if we don't see it immediately in our present situation. But God is greater than our situation. He looks beyond what I can see. He has the film of my whole life in view, and not just the snapshot of my present situation.

When we take a snapshot out of its context, it may often seem to our human understanding as if a pre- or extra-marital surrender, a beautiful lie, or a gentle murder is the way of love. But if the film of life gets into focus, the way always looks different.

If you examine a messed-up life, you will see that the mess always started with the transgression of a divine commandment.