Back to that Family Love...P2

...and priorities

I don't know where I'm going with this, I'm just trekking through the scripture by a prayer and marching on! I felt a need (admittedly, a curiosity), and then God say - OK as usual here it comes, just dig in!

Back to the "Where To Find It in the Bible" study book, I think I'll just go for the heart of the matter and start researching the word "love". There are 46 references, many having more than one verse. I also went to "BibleGateway.com" and found there are actually 442 verses in the Bible that have the word 'love' in them. This could take me a while, "I'll be back".

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I'm trying to find what sets the family love aside from the unfailing love we should feel for all mankind. One thing is the physical relationship, It is commanded to desire after your husband/wife but not anyone else in the world - Proverbs 5:18-19 I read that this is the key to a happy marriage,

¹⁸Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

¹⁹Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

"Always" with her love and that includes the physical, that's a difference in what we feel for our neighbors or strangers.

Proverbs is the second of the three "Wisdom" books, of the Ketuvim, the twelve books of "Writings" from the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible)

Ecclesiastes 9:9

⁹Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.

Ecclesiastes is the fourth of the five "Megillot" (meaning "scroll") books of the Ketuvim, the twelve books of "Writings" from the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible)

So what I'm seeing as I read on is, with the spouse relationship, it is a commitment to that one person, that one body, the care of that one person for "all the days of thy vanity" with love. The keeping unto that one person is a relationship/commitment, not commanded for other human relationships, not that I can find.

I guess there is going to be a part 3 I'm still searching!