Is "Manly Love" an Oxymoron?

If you describe love badly – i.e. “feelings” – yes. A thousand years after Solomon collected and wrote these proverbs another man tried to explain manly love to men. Check out the absolute lack of “feeling” words:

Love is patient and kind;

Love does not envy or boast;

It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way;

It is not irritable or resentful;

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things,

Believes all things,

Hopes all things,

Endures all things.

Love never ends.[1]

Now that – is a description with which we can work! A practical way to work life. This man, along with Solomon, would tell you the wise act love first, then enjoy the feelings. Don’t look for feelings and act on them – that would be the way of a fool.

[1] Paul of Taursus, English Standard Version translation, 1st letter to the Corinthians