LOVE IS NOT AN EMOTION

To say that we use the word love to the point of making it cliche, is ironically cliched itself. But, it is true, and it's worth thinking about again. My job here is to convey a fresh perspective on that by getting us to stop and think about what real love is. I love my wife; I love to go out and eat; I love my car; I love football; I love, I love, I love, ad nauseum. We each understand in our everyday usage that the above examples all  use the word "love" in different ways. The only one that truly conveys emotion is "I love my wife." So it would be fair to say that love can be associated with emotions in that case. However, I want to focus on the idea that love is NOT an emotion, at least in its highest form.

It is not my goal to have this blog entry to be an academic treatise in theology, but we do have to start with a bit of it. The Bible tells us, "God is love." It goes on to describe a form of love known in the Greek language as agape. Many hundreds of thousands of writers, most a great deal smarter than me, have written on the subject, so perhaps it is a bit arrogant of me to think I can contribute anything of significance. However, I will just share my thoughts and you the reader can take or leave what you will. Agape love, in my elementary understanding of it, simply means a form of love that is given unconditionally and in a self-sacrificing way.  In other words, it puts your needs before my own, whether you deserve it or not and whether I  "feel" like it or not. Therein lies my premise that love is not an emotion.

The Bible makes several demands on me in terms of love. Some of them are: "Love one another," "Love your neighbor as yourself," "husbands love your wives." Notice that it doesn't say, "husbands love your wives, if you feel like it, " or "husbands love your wives if she's in a good mood." The meaning is more like, "husbands love your wives even if she's in the crankiest mood ever and you had a horrible day at work." When you consider it that way, its easy to see that a warm emotion may be hard to generate at the moment. 

If love isn't an emotion, what must it be then? I maintain agape love is intentionally chosen behaviors. It means I'm called upon to be kind and do something to meet another person's needs. That's not always easy to do, even when it's a person that is usually easy to like. The greater challenge is to behave that way toward a stranger or a quarrelsome neighbor. It doesn't come naturally to us to be that way. But as I understand the instructions Jesus left me, I have to CHOOSE to behave that way toward even my enemies! Hard? Yes. Worth it? It must be, because God uses agape love as the strongest transforming power in the universe.

Have a great week. See you next time........Steve ( www.tidwinkle.com )