My SOS is God's LOL
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved
you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:12-13 (NIV)
A
teacher asked a boy this question: “Suppose your mother baked a pie and there
were seven of you—your parents and five children. What part of the pie would
you get?”
“A
sixth,” replied the boy.
“I’m
afraid you don’t know your fractions,” said the teacher. “Remember, there are seven of you.”
“Yes,
teacher,” said the boy, “but you don’t know my mother. Mother would say she
didn’t want any pie.”
Most
of us believe and sometimes teach that love is a feeling or emotion. Yes,
feelings and emotions are involved in love but the greatest part of love is
action oriented. Love is a verb (what you do) more than a noun (a feeling). Many marriages,
even among Christians, are failing because they value feelings over
actions. I have heard many newly wedded couples who say that they don’t
feel the love that they once did for their mate. They fell “out of love”
but there is really no falling out of or falling into love. We can fall
out of bed or fall in the bathtub but typically we grow to love someone over
time. This love for another grows from what we see them do for us and for
others.
When we speak about God’s love, I believe we must emphasize that love is active, tangible, and action oriented. Love is a choice one has to make, not so much a feeling we choose to have. The opposite of love is not hatred because in hatred there are at least some emotions but the opposite of love is indifference. To understand God’s love, we should focus on what God does more than what God feels, not that God doesn’t feel love for us but God’s feeling love for us was not enough to save us. It was God’s love that cost Jesus His life and that cost must be acknowledged with the express desire that we will “love one another just as Christ loved us”. And that type of love – the agape love – comes with a high price but a price that is every bit worth it.
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