Picking up from where we left off...

What, then, is love? Love, fundamentally, is a choice, a choice to do that which is best for the other person. It truly is that simple, but our rather jaded society does not easily see it as such. So, we shall unpack the definition.

Love is a choice- that's right, love is a verb, not a noun. It is an action, just like throwing, reading, eating, sitting, standing, running, etc- 'to love' is the word we speak of for this action that influences all others.

As for the other person, that is straightforward enough- the recipient of the action, is naturally the other person, whether it be someone we know, someone we just met, or the random man or woman who may walk into our lives one moment and out it again in the next. That is the other who must be loved.

As for doing the right thing, this is the actual, physical, intellectual, or spiritual manifestation of the action of loving. It takes on a wide variety of forms and in many circumstances, another name, but fundamentally, may still remain love. This section is quite probably the most hotly debated section, which will most likely recieve the majority of time and space on this blog.

An argument against Pragmatism-

This particular definition for love may seem to be one in which the end justifies the means, yet this is not so. Let us state the remaining conditions necessary to the case, or, can love do something which is morally evil to achieve a morally good end?

Allow me to ask the question- is it permissible to murder someone to send their soul to Heaven? For the sake of this argument, if you do not believe in Heaven or the soul, let us assume that they both exist, that Heaven is a place of eternal happiness, and that the soul is meant to go there. Therefore, is one permitted to murder in order to send a soul to Heaven?

The answer is that no, one may not. Why? For the action of murder is a morally evil action- it is neither morally neutral nor good, and as was explained earlier, if any one of the three conditions, intention, action, or circumstances, is wrong, then such an action is morally evil and cannot be done out of love- because love would not violate one of these three.

Thus, love is not pragmatic in nature. Rather, love is patient, kind, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, vast as the sky, unfathomable as the depths of the sea, conquering all, it bows to none, enduring all things, reigning over all. Such is Love in its essence.

Fare thee well until next time.

God love you.