Exactly what is love?

Ki wrote to me with the following two questions. I think it will be interesting to answer her on my blog because her mail is very amusing and so are her blogs.

So have been reading ur blogs and find ur views on
religion very enlightening and comforting as well. I have two questions:
a) why do Christians say ONLY Christians can go to heaven? That piss a lot of
ppl.

I agree with you that sometimes, some Christians do portray themselves to be so exclusive and elitist with that Bible verse until they become real pain in the arse. It is a quote by Jesus that no one goes to God unless through His Son. But then, elsewhere in that thick Bible, Jesus said we must accept (or rather love) others, regardless of their backgrounds. Think of the good Samaritan, the woman at the well, the prostitute and Jesus doodling while waiting for people to throw stones, the faith of the centurion and many more. There were many instances where Jesus just helped those people who went to him without asking if they believe in Him.

I personally do not care where I head to one day. To me, whatever can be done on earth, is best kautim here and now. Then again, many people said they are living the Christian life to get eternal life. They want a resurrected life in Heaven so they start becoming good people now. I think that’s quite the udang di sebalik batu kind of attitude, no? What matters is I live a life that gives me a clear conscience, peace of mind and pleasant to those around me NOW. The rest, belakang kira lah.

And I think I will get many Christians and religious folks foaming in their mouths if I say that I believe almost everyone gets to that place call Heaven. Who knows, a murderer may have done his share of good deeds at other times before desperation drove him to murder? Or someone who never heard of Jesus Christ and live a mundane boring life still get their VIP pass? So, who are we to decide if one goes to Heaven or Hell, right?

b) When I first attended church (not a believer yet), I find it a bit
disturbing that the message was forever LOVE JESUS, LOVE GOD. Machiam, walau
eh, why this jesus guy so perasan, always want ppl to love one?

Actually….from what I understand through my participation in all those courses, classes, formations, etc the word LOVE is not the lovey-dovey feelings we have for our boyfriends/lovers/husbands/someone’s husband LOL. Usually, with these sort of love, we expect returns and acknowledgement and will eventually be ‘rewarded’ with heartaches as well.

The love preached by Jesus is more of a human nature that comes naturally to us. For example, if you see an old lady who fell down, you will naturally go out and help her. That is love already. Or if you see those suffering people in Myanmar or China, you feel like crying. That is love too. It is a general feelings we have in us to help people, protect them, make them happy etc etc etc. And mothers like us, we love our kids. That is already the kind of love Jesus wants. Loving our kids is already loving God (creations).

So, I think we shouldn’t be too uptight with all these demands from people. They set certain standards on what ‘good Christians’ ought to be and that sometimes, really turn people off. I certainly will fled if I have Christians chasing me with “I love you” or expects me to “I love you” back to random strangers. Having said that, I did once attend an American church concert. WTF, midway through the concert, they asked us to stand up and say “I love you” to the person sitting next to us. I was there to watch the clowns and shows, not to do pukey stuffs like that to strangers, ok?

When u are free (:P) you think how
you can explain to me can ah? I suppose my greatest fear is when my boy is old
enuff to ask me, and I have no answers which satisfy him.

As for explaining faith to our kids, you can relax lah. They have the affinity to know more about our faith than us because they have innocence that we don’t. Don’t worry lah, one day, our kids will probably teach us more about faith than what we have.

See? Religion is really simple. It is only humans who made it so confusing. Do read Ecclesiastes from the Old Testament and see what Solomon said about all these.

Ki’s blogs at http://goolypop.blogspot.com/ and http://juikaipakthong.blogspot.com/

That will be 10 bahts, please. šŸ˜›

17 thoughts on “Exactly what is love?

  1. hi 5Xmom, i enjoyed reading ur blog. i find this post particular interesting as u replied to a reader of urs questioning you wat exactly is love. i guess it gives me a clearer view wat does love means in the dictionery of the christian.

    i do have some question would like to ask you regarding abt christianity.

    1) do god answers to most of our wishes?
    2) how do you noe that god will give you advide and how does he give u advice.
    3) does he really knows the sorrow and pain that his son like us is going through?

    would hope that u can help me answer the above question by replying me through thanks.

    will continue to read ur blog. enjoyed it. šŸ˜›

  2. šŸ™‚ Hi Alina
    Thanks for the honour (of thinking that I know the answers) :mrgreen:

    1) Well, God doesn’t always answer prayers because the explanation that we heard is ‘God knows what is best for us’ so He gives what He knows is the better choice for us. But, I personally, do not like to ‘ask God’ for things because it gets frustrating when I don’t get what I want. So, normally, I will go something like, “Aiyor, You know what I want already, so up to You lah…Whatever lah..”

    2) If you take time to ponder a bit, sometimes, we do meet some kind souls, some people who help and things like that to make our paths smoother. At other times, if things bother me, I will keep sorting it out in my mind and voila, I will find my answers to solve the problems or learn to see things differently. So, basically, that’s how we communicate with our Divine Being. God is like that little voice in our heart, if you listen hard enough. And if you do read the Bible, sometimes, certain parts of the words do hit you smack on and you go, “Alamak, why do these verses sound so practical and workable, one?”

    3) You see, we Christians have three different images of this person we call God. It is the big father figure of God, the personal friend of Jesus (the bearded guy) and that mysterious Holy Spirit that dwells in us. So, if you have problems dealing with the big father figure, you can always lean on the bearded guy. And if you don’t like bearded Jesus, you can always comfort yourself that you are walking in the shadow of the Holy Spirit and whatever you feel, the hurt, sadness, pain, grief whatever is felt by the Holy Spirit too. So, you see, you are never really alone, in that sense. Of course, it takes some faith to be able to see God in that three different dimensions. That’s why being Christian is so special cos we are able to ‘dissect’ the God we believe in and find one (or even all 3) that we prefer.

    Just like how in Buddhism, there is Quan Yin which is actually a male but made to appear like female to give the compassionate touch. :mrgreen: So, in Christianity, you can find an image you are comfortable with and take Him as your personal Saviour, Friend, Counsellor, Helper, Hero, Lengjai Yehsou and trust that you are never alone.

    *someone kick me already* :mrgreen:

  3. Thats a very wise answer from you lah..I’m a Catholic for as long as i can remember, but i never know only christian can get eternal life..sorry lah..I’m not holy moly type of person..

    Just want you to know, I also read your Faith Blog..your bible knowledge is impressing (mine very limited. If people asked me about christian (catholic) i really scared i give the wrong answer. šŸ˜•

    kaDusMamas last blog post..How many roles do you have in your life?

  4. kadusmama – šŸ˜³ I only appear to know cos I kuat temberang. :mrgreen: But some of them, those more serious stuffs are guidance from my courses and also things I asked my parish priest.

  5. Er, I beg to differ on the Kuan Yin part. She is not a ‘he’ portrayed as a ‘she’ although many people tend to think so. Goddess of Mercy is female and not male. Well, that’s what I understand from my learnings into Buddhism and Taoism.
    If the theory that Kuan Yin was portrayed as a she to put that compassionate touch to the deity, why wasn’t Jesus portrayed as a ‘she’ too so that he appeared more compassionate too? Heheh…just saying la…I do not intend to insult Jesus or Christianity. šŸ˜‰

    Foongs last blog post..Hey you, yes you, did you even stop to think?

  6. Foong – Eh, my Quan Yin (ex-QY la) flat chested and the robe opens in front one. :mrgreen: You go Google and see? Got ah, we Catholics got Mother Mary for that compassionate touch also mah. But MM only helps us to pray lah, no special power like Jesus.

    Ki – Actually free one, but electricity naik harga so I charge 10 bahts.

    pablo – Alpha Course offers that? Too bad it clashed with my Living the Word or else I sure go liao.

  7. “some Christians do portray themselves to be so exclusive and elitist with that Bible verse until they become real pain …..”
    Oh yes! Just because they have read the bible several times and can even recite it backwards some Christians do think that GOD is on vacation and they are now in charge! šŸ™

    9pek9bos last blog post..The AhNeh-Neh Rempit

  8. Ki – LOL at your title. I read already but dare not comment lah. Speechless…perm your hair ledi?

    9pek9bo – My e-kor-kor agree with me too! Hahaha :mrgreen:

  9. i personally care where i go to after i die, for i want to be with my Father and not alone.

    i do agree with u however, that it is not in our position to judge others as they are not answerable to us but to God.

  10. Lilian, I was just wondering. Prior to choosing Christianity as your way of life, have it occured to you to study the contents of other holy books such as the Taurah (the Jewish Holy book), Quran (Muslim Holy book), and others to see how each religion is faired against another and see if they are even better than Christian itself? If you have not, then wouldn’t it be that your views of Christianity would be classified as a self-fulfilling prophecy for you? Wouldn’t it be an unfair statement and views of how you view religion? Wouldn’t it be that your views are a perfect one-sided view in terms on theological understanding? Wouldn’t it be a biased view to say a particular religion is Divine?

  11. i am not yet a christian la but I follow my sister to Methodist Church. I too had one errr..sort of like question I cannot understand as some of my care group friends say God asnwer their prayers and I’ll go like, how? He talks to us ar? Then how come I never hear him sort of stuff. And when I get goosebumps, I thought He is around (U know la, I was told that when got those spirit near u, you get goosebumps mar.)

    Now I understand already. It’s somehow our own inner voice la. Like something/someone telling us something is not right. Kam very the xia for the answer. =P

    Ping Pings last blog post..Er…Anything la.

  12. ping ping – Actually hor…even in between us Christians, we have our differences and normally, we avoid talking about it because it brings no fruitful result. For example, Protestants may see us Catholics as a bit weird because we have statues in our churches while they don’t. And some of the more modern American churches have their own style as well.

    So, the best way to know Jesus Christ is to do it personally without being influence by a group. Even I myself, am very open that I don’t totally 100% immersed myself in the way my church runs. Whatever I love, I do, whatever I do not agree, I just stay away. There are people who are trained to educate us but at the end of the day, it relies on our own faith and blind devotion. (not to be mistaken as blindly follow law, ok?)

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