LOVE: FACT OR FEELING?
Some may argue, “But love is a feeling and you cannot command a feeling. I just don’t feel anything for him/her anymore.” But agapé love is not primarily a feeling. God would not command a feeling. Love is primarily an action. Love is the giving of oneself to another. It’s a skill one can develop in the strength of God’s Spirit. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). In other words, love insists we do something. Feelings for enemies are not developed by sitting in a dark room thinking, but by doing. Feelings follow action. Feelings are the fruit, not the root, of love.
If you give your enemy something to eat or drink, something happens to your feelings. When you invest yourself in someone, you begin to feel differently toward him or her. In his book, None of These Diseases, Dr. S. I. McMillen described how this works:
When I quote the Bible to people who are suffering physically or mentally from a lack of love, some of them retort that it is very difficult to change one’s feelings, to change hate to love. That is true. Psychologists support this view, claiming that the will does not have complete control over the emotions. However, these same psychologists state that the will has good control over the actions. Our wills largely do have the power to decide what we do and what we don’t do. This is fortunate because actions, over which we do have power, can change our feelings. That’s what Matthew 5:43–44 is all about. The action plan will work like Aladdin’s lamp.
“Do good to them that hate you.” Impossible? Not if you follow some easy directions.
Step #1: Walk out into your kitchen. Now you can do that. You have done it many times and you can walk there again.
Step #2: Make up a lemon meringue pie as delicious as one on a magazine cover…you have made your pie. So far so good! By that time you will feel a little better.
Step #3: Give your feet the sternest look they ever got, and inform them in a tone of authority, “Feet, you are going to carry me and this pie to Mrs. Quirks. Yes, I know you haven’t been there in many a year, but you are going today.”
Off you go. As you begin your adventure to seek the golden fleece of love, you feel strangely different. You feel warm, behind and a little to the left of your wishbone. You sense something wonderful is happening inside. Across the railroad tracks you go and down the dingy alley called Depot Street. You begin to understand Mrs. Quirks’ attitude a little better as a noisy freight train passes, shaking houses and sidewalks, and the black soot soils your immaculate white gloves, and while dirty, boisterous children send shivers up your spine with shrieks and cursing. “Yes,” you say, “if I had to live here, I think I would be irritable too.”
As you go up the stairs, you cannot help smiling at the new role you are playing. You rap on the door and wait. To Mrs. Quirks’ truly surprised look, you present your peace offering with a nice smile you decide to throw in for good measure.
A little chat in the living room, a cordial invitation for her to visit you, then on leaving, a mutual hug and kiss—the fervor and spontaneity of it surprises both of you. You sense that a divine miracle has happened inside you because the love of God is truly coursing through your whole being. The impossible has happened!
On the way home you feel like skipping along the street, as you did when you were a carefree girl. Inside is the spirit of singing and summer, absent for many a year. You feel so good you decide not to stop at the doctor’s to take that “shot” for frayed nerves. They aren’t frayed anymore. You never felt better in your life. Even the pain in your back is gone.
He drew a circle that shut me out!
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win.
We drew a circle that took him in.
What our world needs most is to see love in action—in our homes, in our churches, in our cities, in our streets. How can this happen? The solution is found in God’s Word: “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us” (Romans 5:5).
“I WANT TO BE LOVED…AND I WANT TO LOVE.” God hears these cries, and He wants to love this world through us by His Spirit. But remember, love demands action and we must take those first steps. We must put ourselves in situations where God can love through us. This book is dedicated to learning about one very practical, very powerful way to reach out to others with God’s love.
Love this world through me, Lord
This world of broken men,
Thou didst love through death, Lord
Oh, love in me again!
Souls are in despair, Lord,
Oh, make me know and care
When my life they see,
May they behold Thee.
Oh, love the world through me.
David Jeremiah, The Power of Encouragement
www.jesusfilm.org
