Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — If your book isn’t a buzz, it’s not the Bible.
IS LOVE JUST ANOTHER FOUR LETTER WORD?
What do you mean?
Introduction
Over the recent pride month of June, the word, “love,” was plastered, ad nauseam, all over the English speaking world (I can’t speak for other languages).
Continuing the pursuit of understanding this hackneyed, over-used, English word, some historical characters are here presented which may appear out of place.
To a lot of people these are Bad Dudes. To some they are heroes. But, to many, I suspect that they are not well known — but I have been known to be wrong.
Background
They are Adolf Hitler and one of his subordinates, Albert Speer.
Hitler’s rabid hatred of Jews, Slovaks, Africans, Scythians, and all races other than his concept of the pure Aryan, along with his plans for world domination, is well documented, and is well described in the euphemism, “Final Solution.” The words left unspoken in this term are, “The slaughter of Jews in every place where Nazi doctrine prevailed.” That is, approximately 6 million souls (2/3 of all Jews in Europe when it was forced to end in 1945) slaughtered on an industrial scale by Nazi Germany — led by Hitler aided by Speer (and others).
Speer, Hitler’s Minister for Armaments Production, is not so well known but he was responsible for the use of slave labour (where the contract was only terminated upon the death of the slave) to achieve his aims. He became quite famous in the 1970s after his release from prison so, if you are interested, there is much on the internet about him.
Also if you are interested, there are more Medium articles to be found on the Nazi era, and the years immediately following, at the link to Nuremberg .
The Nazi definition of love
Speer became quite rich on his Nazi escapades from the time of his release from Spandau Prison in 1966, to his death in 1981. He was the ‘A’ on the A-List on TV talk shows. He often spoke of his first encounter with Hitler and how he was surprised that there was no ranting and raving but talk of love. Love of the People and the Blood. Love of the soil. Love of Germany. I saw Speer say this in an interview, where he actually became emotional and teared-up, but I have not been able to find a copy — even from the Jewish Holocaust Institutions. The best that has been found is the documentary, Albert Speer: The Nazi who said Sorry. From 3”28’ to 4”24’ in the 45” documentary, a woman (Gitta Serene) who had spent numerous hours with Speer in order to write the book, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth, recounts his description to her of such an episode. The mother tongue of both of them was German, and they both spoke fluent English, so the possibility of cross-language confusion of meaning was very low.
If you don’t want to get it from the horse’s mouth, here is my transcript of that minute.
Commentator voice-over: He joined the party in 1931. Two years before Hitler assumed power. He was studying architecture when fellow students persuaded him to attend a speech by the would-be Chancellor. He expected Hitler to rant and rave but was shocked to discover that he didn’t.
Gitta: He spoke to them about love. (Gitta hushes her voice.) Love of country. Love for each other. Love for work.
You know? They sat there petrified. And Speer said, “I felt, ‘Am I going home? No. I’m not going home.’” He just walked through the woods. And he [Speer] told me [Gitta], “I thought and thought. This was a man who understood us, and, who loved us.”
Would everyone have the same touchy-feely definition of love?
Probably not teenager Anne Frank, one of the 6 million. She died in 1945 at Bergen-Belsen Death Camp, Nazi Germany.
The difference between Supernatural (Divine) Love and Natural Love is described in the article AGAPĒ IS A PERSON — NOT A CONCEPT. It would not cause anyone’s brain to hurt to see that Nazi love is human and has nothing to do with Agapē.
SO WHAT DOES THE ENGLISH WORD, “LOVE,” MEAN?
The origin and history of the word (etymology)
(Just in case you didn’t know, etymologies are not definitions; they’re explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded in days of yore.)
The Online Etymology website has 278 entries for the word, ranging from a tennis score to a cozy feeling; romantic sexual attraction; affection; friendliness; the love of God. An interesting facet of the word is that it can be an abstraction or personification.
The diverse range of meanings renders it effectively meaningless. It can mean whatever the user, or hearer, wants it to mean — at the time, it may change at a whim.
As can be seen with Hitler’s use of the word, it is a useful method to disguise evil in polite circles.
SO WORDS ARE CHEAP! AS JESUS MADE CLEAR, IT IS THE CONTENT OF THE HEART THAT COUNTS.
It is useless under law
This is recognised in the Australian Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017, where the word, “love,” does not get a mention because its meaning is a moving target so the courts would be full for ever. (Incidentally, the word, “gender,” does not appear and “sex” appears only to define same-sex marriage. But they are other stories for another time.)
Personification of an abstract idea
That the word has also been used as an abstraction or personification adds to the ambiguity.
There is a song in the Rodgers and Hart musical, The Boys from Syracuse, titled “Falling in Love with Love.”
The chorus begins,
Falling in love with love is falling for make believe
Falling in love with love is playing the fool
The song goes on to finish,
I fell in love with love
With love everlasting
But love fell out with me
I’m open to correction but it seems this poetic technique of giving an abstract idea a personality is entertaining but too vague for defining any type of doctrine. Because it is a capricious word which can’t be pinned down, and is subject to emotion, the English “love” must be viewed cautiously when discussing an emotional topic like homophobia. This has been demonstrated by the use of the term “hate-speech” which is the go-to response from the ROYGBIV demographic toward anyone who does not embrace their doctrine.
[NOTE: I’ve chosen to use the initials of the primary colours of the rainbow. It seems that this is a more robust i.d. than the usual because it is less liable to grow, and is less prone to internal conflict.]
So, is love just a four letter word?
You may disagree but it appears to me that enough evidence has been presented in this series, so far, to show that it it is such an amorphous, nebulous, vacuous word, not precisely determined, which has no meaning to the point of being self-contradictory. When used in the context of sex, the classical example is that of a conversation between a hormone primed teenage male and female (let’s be old fashioned) which is as old as Civilization.
Him: If you really loved me, you would have sex with me.
Her: If you really loved me, you wouldn’t ask me to have sex with you.
You decide which is the correct definition.
Based on that short conversation, I would recommend that Bible readers begin to practice the use of the Greek words — but I don’t think there would be many takers.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime. If you have seen something you like, I encourage plagiarism. So, always check everything I say first, then please re-cycle, re-brand, re-structure, re-issue, re-label, or re-gurgitate in any manner you please. No need to acknowledge me because the Holy Spirit Who holds the Intellectual Rights.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
