EXPOSITION:

The ability to identify true love is important because it leads to happy marriage. The pre-marital stage of life is the period of searching for a future spouse and so whether what you feel is actually true love or not must be settled. Several emotions can mimic love and cause confusion in the minds of singles in search of love. Emotions such as pity, sympathy and lust can even be quite misleading as far as true marital love is concerned.

According to ancient Greeks, there are about eight different kinds of love namely Philia; platonic love, Storge; love of parents or family, Philautia; healthy love for self, Ludus; playful flirtatious kind of love, Eros; sexual love, Mania; desperate and obsessive love, Pragma; enduring love that matures over a period of time; and above all Agape, the unconditional kind of love. Not all these can sustain a marital relationship. From our reading in Genesis, Shechem was willing to marry Dinah even after raping her. Sexual attraction (eros) caused Shechem to violate Dinah but he was obsessed (mania) with her to want to marry her.

Does the one who claim to love you seem to be obsessed with your body/looks or seeks to satisfy his/her needs irrespective of how it violates you? Look for signs of selfishness in anybody who claims to love you because it points away from true love. On the contrary, the God kind of love is patient, kind, protective, not rude and not self-seeking. Any love that does not have these godly attributes is not worth falling for.