Love is a Beautiful Thing... or is it? (Part One)

Good morning.

We can talk endlessly about love. When people have sex they say they’re making love, we easily say ‘I love this and that’ and especially ‘I love you’.

The dictionary defines love as:

A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person,

a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child or a friend,

and sexual passion or desire.

The Bible defines loves as:

“‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:30, 31).”
 
There is quite a difference in the way man sees love compared to the way God sees it, isn’t it? If, in the light of the above definitions, we look at a couple of the love commands in the Bible, we’ll come to important conclusions.

“‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:30, 31).”

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27).”

According to the dictionary definition above, do I need to involve my heart, soul, mind and strength to love God? I only need to feel love toward Him, don’t I? And if I don’t feel like loving Him today, I just ignore Him. Don’t we do that sometimes? And what about loving my enemies? How on earth can I feel love toward my enemy? She’s my enemy for a reason – I feel hatred toward her!

Don Francisco puts this well in one of his songs: “Love is not a feeling; it’s an act of the will. The definition according to 1 Corinthians 13 above focuses on actions. If we test our love based on that definition, we’ll discover quite lot about ourselves. This kind of love calls for an unselfish approach and its standard was set by the Lord. That’s how Jesus loved while He was on earth and that’s how God currently loves us. Think about how you often treat the Lord when it comes to sin and disobedience. If love was based on how God felt about your behaviour, He would love you when you’re good and despise you when you’re disobedient.

But love is an action. That’s why our love for the Lord is proved by obedience to His commands (John 14:21) with our mind, will and emotions (our soul) and with our actions (our strength), as well as intimate fellowship with Him in our hearts.

We do not need to feel love toward our enemies, but only have to do love in practical ways to bless them and meet their needs. Why does God expect this of us? Because He does it for us and if we do it for our enemies, they can see Him in us. Imagine how flabbergasted your archenemy would be if you bless him.

Doing love is contrary to human nature and tomorrow we’re going to look at it in more detail.

Lord, please teach me true love.

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