The last and fourth
type of Love described by Lewis in The
Four Loves is Charity. Charity or Agape Love is the love that brings forth
caring for the other or others regardless of the circumstance. Lewis believes
and recognizes Charity as the greatest of all the loves, and asserts that it is
a specifically Christian virtue. The chapter on Charity focuses on the need of
subordinating the natural loves to the love of God, who is full of charitable
love. Lewis says he does not mean to belittle the natural loves, which are the
first three, but want to show where their glory lies. Of course, like Lewis
says, this makes me think of the love of God that caused him to give His son
for our salvation. God is described as love, and he loves us because he loves
us, it is not a conditional love like many of the natural loves can be, but one
that loves because that’s just who he is and he cannot deny who he is. This
book is so good and I probably would have never had read the book if I had not
taken this class and had it as a required text. This fourth Love is one that is
sacrificing and loves as we saw in Christ’s life even unto death, a death characterized
by pain and shame. A selfless love that is unworried with its own self but more
concerned about the other, which I have only found from God and no other I
believe is capable of such love and we as humans should not expect that type of
completely selfless love from another human, not only would we be disappointed
and let down, but we would be placing an unachievable standard on another human
being, who is not perfect and should not be expected to be. I think many times
in relationships sometimes the thing that causes some to fail is the
expectation of one of the partners to be “like God,” which is an unrealistic
and unfair request and expectation.
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