To answer the first post, I'll start with love in general. Love is inherently powerful. 'The whole is greater than the sum of its parts' applies to people, in the sense that any kind of loving relationship is a 'greater self', an 'us', a oneness. Jesus talks about being one in John 17.
Note the part about being perfected in unity. That unity is the oneness. It accomplishes things for us that we can not accomplish by ourselves. There are sides of ourselves which are only understood, and qualities which are only brought to their best, in certain relationships; we know ourselves and become ourselves through eachother.
This is especially true in our relationship with the Trinity, but other relationships play a part in developing and expressing our relationship with God indirectly. It is not codependence but interdependence, and unfortunately a lot of guys indulge a shallow cynical view on something that is vitally important to how God and heaven operate.
There are many kinds of love, and romantic/marital love is not the only kind, but it takes all kinds of healthy honest love to express the full truth of what Love is, and we need that truth. You can think of it as a sort of spiritual fusion, similar to atoms joining together to form molecules. People are able to do more and become more through the power derived from (good) relationships. Romantic love is an especially direct representation of oneness, and the powerful, rewarding bonds involved help people with the task of creating entirely new human beings.
Note the part about being perfected in unity. That unity is the oneness. It accomplishes things for us that we can not accomplish by ourselves. There are sides of ourselves which are only understood, and qualities which are only brought to their best, in certain relationships; we know ourselves and become ourselves through eachother.
This is especially true in our relationship with the Trinity, but other relationships play a part in developing and expressing our relationship with God indirectly. It is not codependence but interdependence, and unfortunately a lot of guys indulge a shallow cynical view on something that is vitally important to how God and heaven operate.
There are many kinds of love, and romantic/marital love is not the only kind, but it takes all kinds of healthy honest love to express the full truth of what Love is, and we need that truth. You can think of it as a sort of spiritual fusion, similar to atoms joining together to form molecules. People are able to do more and become more through the power derived from (good) relationships. Romantic love is an especially direct representation of oneness, and the powerful, rewarding bonds involved help people with the task of creating entirely new human beings.
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