"For Love"

“For Love”

Love is an emotion that brings about mystery. It cannot be explained without ones opinion being interjected within the explanation. Throughout “Against Love”, Kipnis portrays love as a burden or obligation between couples. She speaks of a give and take relationship in the sense of “If you love me, you’ll do what I want—or need, or demand—and I’ll love you in return.” Kipnis also expresses that “love is obtained” when one’s life is filled with demands that contain the word “can’t”. This is not how love should be understood to be.

Love is uncontrollable. It makes one vulnerable and opens up one’s heart giving another the opportunity to “get inside” and break it or cherish it. Love should not be considered as an obligation but a goal that one is striving for. In marriage, love is the bond that keeps couples together. As said in Ephesians 5:31-33, “31 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” Love, in this passage is explained to be an emotion held for one’s spouse just as God loves the church. When the full extent of love is attained, the two become one, embodying what God has called them to be.