Reflections on love

Does the truest and deepest love always/inherently carry the highest risk of pain and hurt? Is it a sign of selfishness to only be willing to expose your deepest emotions to one in whom you have a level of certainty will appreciate such exposure? We have a perceived paradox in scripture in that the greatest love is exhibited in a man laying down his life for his friends; and he who has friends must shew himself friendly. So on this hand we have a mutual relationship as our definition of the greatest love. The flip side to this coin is that we only love God because he first loved us, in fact he sought and purchased us when we were yet his enemies! At what level and to what extent then do we carry this principle over into human relationships? I am hesitant to say that there is a greater nobility in love than that which abides regardless of time, space or affections returned. This is the love written of by the ancients, eternally captured and lauded in sonnets, legends, and riddles. Yet I am equally concerned that such an ideology, while noble to its core, has little to no practicality; of what use is love that cannot be practiced? In the end, the question - Is a noble, solitary love of greater worth than a practical, mutual affection? - is left unanswered.