Love: Emotion or Action?
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." -- 1 John 4:16b
Is love a feeling or an action? How do we know love? Do we know it because we feel it deep inside? Or do we know love by its actions in our lives and the lives of those around us?
We feel love as an emotion that overwhelms us. But emotions are not always dependable. They fade away. They are unstable and wishy-washy. They rely on whims and fantasies.
Love runs deep. The old saying that there isn't much distance between love and hate applies. Love brings an intensity that builds with time, that places others high in our regard. Yet love defined in the dictionary refers to a "warm feeling," which is far from the intensity that we associate with it.
Love causes action. We think of others as ourselves. We want good for the people we love. We seek to do and respond to the needs of our loved ones. We care because we love. Or maybe we love because we care.
What about those around us who maybe haven't entered that realm of love that surrounds us? Do we shove them aside? Do we ignore their needs? Do we stay centered on ourselves and those we love or do we reach out to include those whom God loves too?
There is the catch. "We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19) God is the beginning of love. So how can we truly know love without knowing God? And if we know God, how can we fail to act on that love and include all those who belong to Him?
So is love an emotion or an action? It is both. Because one without the other isn't love at all.
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