Sample Literature Paper on The Four Loves
According to Lewis (156), human love comprises of need and love. Additionally, he adds, “human loves deserved to be called loves at all just in so far as they resembled that Love which is God” (156). Interestingly, the need love is more prominent. Human beings strive to resemble God and this increases the gift love. However, people always have some needs. Human being depend on need love. On the contrary, God does not rely on need love. Via need-love, people realize their dependence on God, which is never a bad thing. Accordingly, the need love creates the opportunity for people to come close to God and keeps them accountable as well as the need to encourage other people. Note that charity involves the aspect of giving. That is why people – as God’s creation – should graciously accept gifts. It is worth mentioning that via the practice of gift-love, people perceive God the same way they perceive things via God’s light. Gift love is experienced when people love others without expecting or receiving anything in return. Nevertheless, as noted above, although Gift-love and Need love share some facets, there are various differences allied to the two.
The Similarities between Gift-love and Need love
Both loves show man with likeness image to God: Man is given freedom to enjoy all things God made. This includes the space, time and all things around, with knowledge and wisdom. Compared to animals, man has a divine nature. The loves show the man to have a resemblance love from God. The man is God like, which is boundless and complete (Lewis 142). Man has energy, joy, patience, forgiveness, and desire for the good beloved. This is true image of God shown by the two loves. According to Lewis (159), the two loves show likeness by pleasure. Liking for things and love for people has to start with the pleasure it holds. The desire and needs stimulates the act of pleasure to demand for like. Conditional effects also stimulate the pleasure, which may be unintentional but because it is presented, the need for it arises. The two have opposite love appreciation and pleasure.
Both loves are voluntary: they relate on man’s highest intelligence, which shows his knowledge of love. God love is real, He loves us, but not because we love Him. The loves have kindness and tolerance. Human beings have goodness of portraying his love. They work to their limit to bear glory of their intended love. He goes through encouragement and discouragement before he bears the result of his charity. This shows both loves with charity to others. God’s love is insufficient. He gives love through His grace to human with kindness. The charity is shown when we love God more, and other creature less.
The Differences between Gift-love and Need-love
Need-love is greedy. It unlikeness of God’s image. Human love is image of Divine love, with less or more proximities of likeness, which may help or hinder needs love. The Need-pleasure may be demonstrated on an addictive person. He has the desire for the beer, but not pleasure of thirst and taste but to uncomfortable pleasure of being sober. The Need-pleasure is Need-love, which act to resist the pleasure of the satisfaction the demand of the need. Need-pleasure has different kind of appreciation, because the love is demonstrated on our own needs. This love does not last longer. However, may endure satisfaction for a specific time as long as it is desired.
On the other hand, Gift-love is primal. This prime love is Gift-love, God as a source of love through creation; he gave us Gift-love. This is seen in a man, who is given a glass of beer when he expected water (Lewis 143). The man will enjoy the pleasure of the reliving his thirsty and the taste pleasure as well.
Most significant, Gift-love is natural images by resemblance (Lewis 168). Conversely, need-love has no resemblance, with love of God. However, by natural love, God has a divine better gift. Gift-love is directed to things, which one find variable and lovable to which affection attracts him. Need-love enables Him to love what is not lovable.
In addition, Gift-love gives helps in socialization and in sharing. Friendship is happiness and school of virtue. Every human being needs and desires to have a friend or friends. Friendship gives experiences, which strengthen the love, natural love. It is a reality of love and serves as the practical value of the community (Lewis 147). On the contrary, need-love is appreciation of love and is based on best, wisest, and funniest of all members involved.
Most significantly, need-loves is conditionally; it is critical for survival. This can at times lead to Eros. Eros is the passionate, familial, and romantic love that we cannot live without. It involves companionship. More so, it arises when some individual realizes that they have some mutual interest to each other (Lewis 148). Eros is based on sexes. In Gift-love, Eros is uninquisitive, it helps to care and know about our mutual friends who we associate with. However, it is not limited to profession. Those with no shared activities cannot be friends, but Eros. Eros is seldom to represent the love between God and man. It takes a symbol of highest love. The Eros is taken as the image of God and interest of the church.
The Need-loves have no resemblance to the Love, which God has. They are rather opposites. However, not like in the case of evil and good whereby each contrast each other. Nevertheless, notwithstanding all these loves, God rules in a human heart, though He may sometimes have to remove certain of its native authorities. This helps a man to practice the charity of love with caution. To love is always vulnerable; you may love and be happy or be broken. In the contrary, Gift-love is to give with natural love, considering the nature of need. Thus, natural love needs to be in ordinated. God communicates to men a share of His Own Gift-love. This is different from the Gift-loves He has built into their nature. They are biased in favor of only good things, or those would fit them. Again, natural Gift-love is always directed to objects, which the lover finds in some way intrinsically lovable objects to which Affection or Eros shares.
Moreover, God enables human to have Gift-love to Himself. We cannot give to Him because He is the owner, but we can show the charity by meeting the need of others (Lewis 170). Through feeding or clothing them. This is Gift-love to God. This Gift-love comes by grace and it is called charity. In contrary, Need-love in charity is disinterested, which is not created by grace. It does not recognize its own neediness. The charity is unlovable. It needs love for pleasure in charity, which will give a terrible shock. They pretend to be loving but perceive as offering of charity.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the two loves always expect a renewal. The affection, friendship, Eros, and charity, manifest a natural love, which may be either Need-love or Gift-love. The highest and the lowest level are determined by the effect and interaction of man’s love for God. God gives way for divine love, which is resemblance to his image. Gift-love is sufficient and it considers good result for human. Need-love is greedy and lowers the man moral in his love to others and God.
Works Cited
Lewis, C. S. The Four Loves. London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010. pp141-176