Love the Lord your God with all your heart ?

[Thomas Kelly252525]

Ignorant: Thank you Again I appreciate your response.

Thomas: If I don't love someone?

Well, that would usually imply that I have some experience of them and my reaction isn't one of love. It's different to not being able to even have the opportunity to love someone, because I've never met them.

Love is tricky to define. I don't consider it a binary condition: love or not love. In fact, it's more like an extreme version of like. But you can also love, and like, things in different ways.

I'd say I love someone, in one way or another, if I care about them deeply. I'd even go so far as to put their happiness ahead of my own much of the time. I probably think about them frequently, and I'd be very sad if I lost them for whatever reason.

So if I don't love someone, it could be that I don't like them at all, or it could be I do like them, but not to the point where I feel very close to them in the ways I suggested above.

robvalue,

Thanks.  I think thoughtful answers are right for rational discussion.

Do you think it's fair to say that if someone does or says something to please you then you love them ?

If someone does or says something to displease you then you don't love them ?

That goodwill is constant in you if pleased by someone or displeased by them ?

That if someone pleases you all the time that you are close to them and you love them ?