"Build Me a Sanctuary" ; the Temple Wherein the Holy Ghost Dwells (Exodus 25:8)

This may be an odd reply to the following comment on my post about Exodus 3:14's Name being notification that God is involved with us, but it's what I've got.

The comment:

What is love then?

The progression of my understanding of love is as such.

Hollywood love, emotions, flutter in the heart, butterflies in the stomach, etc.

And then I heard that love has 3 root words in the Bible, so there were 3 different kinds of love. The greatest one being agape, which connotes a sort of unconditional love, a brotherly love, a familial love that has no place for lust and romance. Something higher, so to speak.

Of late, I have moved away from the above notions of love. In order to avoid the counters of "what about the poor?" "What about war-torn societies?" "What about the Jews in WW2?" I have learnt that love actually means expansion as opposed to destruction. So it is not even about morality. It is not about people but about expansion. Expanding universes, expanding stars, solar systems, cities, species, etc., etc. And so the argument goes that love does not see murder and theft, etc. Rather, love is expansion in infinity. No morality.

What is love?!

And when I hear someone try to profoundly distil it into "God is love", it does not help at all since the love side of the equation is confusion to me!

Anonymous at 8:39
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My response:

Dear Anonymous at 8:39,

I almost did not post your comment when I saw in it, "No morality." I agree that love is, or at least entails, expansion. Expansion is what Japheth means. Who does not want more of and for the one he or she loves? But I am not sure love does not mean or involve morality. God's sense of morality is way beyond ours. Yes, there is expansion outwards, but there is also to be expansion, conversion inwardly--the two becoming one spiritually, emotionally, and also "in the flesh." Doesn't infidelity against you by the one you love make you jealous? God had a reason for making us to live when He gave us life, and it is not unreasonable for Him to expect devotion. He is a devoted God ('jealous' is a mistranslation), and He expects the same from us. We are the Sanctuary He desires to live within and through--the Temple of the Holy Ghost. I do not know if you consider that a call to moral living, but I consider it a call to submission, fidelity to Him, and to Holiness. When we go into the Silence, it should be unto the Sanctuary within us wherein God dwells--the effect of being baptized in the Holy Ghost continuously, oneness with Him. There is a lot of love where "His train fills the Temple."

I read expansion as including both the outward and the inward, and do not see how you can have the inward without morality. Or maybe 'morality' just isn't quite the right word.

Thank you for the interesting comment.

Dan Steele