Love… or maybe not.

I’m going to focus just on Pausanias’s argument on love. He argues for two types of love, heavenly love and common love. I want to focus on want part of his argument specifically. He argues that while subjugating oneself for politics or money causes one to be humiliated, but doing it for love does not. Here he is wrong. Subjugating oneself (or really sacrificing, not subjugating) OUT OF love is honorable. Subjugating oneself TO OBTAIN love is even less honorable than doing it for politics or money. What is lower than pretending to be someone you’re not, or sacrificing yourself for nothing – for not even a promise? Here’s an example: If Jesus had sacrificed himself so humanity would love him, that would be, honestly, a pathetic sacrifice. If God himself needed approval of man, and so sacrificed himself so man would love him, there would be nothing less honorable than that. However, Jesus’ sacrificing himself OUT OF love for humanity, because he loved them so much that even when they hated him, he still sacrificed himself for them – not because he wanted to change their minds (although he did want THEM to change THEIR OWN minds about who he was), but because HE wanted to do so, his actions are more honorable than any.