A Verb part 1
Love is a verb. That's what I want to say. And I'll say it for the next few days, at the very least. Because if love isn't a verb, or an action word, then it isn't really anything. Look at James 2:15-16 (NLT), "Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"--but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?" Love as an idea isn't really much of anything at all. But charity... love in action... that's when things get real. When the rubber meets the raod. And we see this best in Jesus and the cross. Jesus said, "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13 NLT). And then He went to the cross and literally did just that. He didn't just TELL us what love is. He SHOWED us. By loving us. By laying His life down for us. Laying it down so that He could pick up back up. Giving it for us, and giving it to us. So that we could have it. So that we could experience it as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. I used to like a song called, "What's This Life For?" Because I, like most of us at one time or another, was trying to figure it out. But then I figured it out. This life is for living. Once upon a time I did everything I thought I was "supposed to do." Go to college. Get a job. Get married. Have a kid. And, yes, I still have my degree. And, yes, I still have my kid. But if that was the blueprint for a "normal life," well... there's no such thing as normal. And the only life worth living is a life of love. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected. They are the same thing. You can't have one without the other, and you can't do one without the other. A life without love is no life at all. Let me say it another way. God is love, right? The Word of God is Jesus... love. And God is light, right? Jesus is the light of the world. LOVE is the light of the world. Well, John 1:4 says, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." The life is the light is the love! But John 1:14 says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Because before the cross it was Emmanuel, God WITH us. But through the cross it became God WITHIN us! And I'm telling you, every time you act in love the Word (again, Jesus... love) is made flesh in you. The Word--the love--within you comes out of you! And that's the whole point of the whole thing--receiving and releasing the love of God. Letting God love us, and filling ourselves to overflowing with that love by knowing and believing it. By being... and by doing what we be! Being loved, being love, and then doing love. Giving love. Jesus literally laid His life down for His friends--for all of humanity. We do the same, in a sense, when we give everything we have and everything we are to each other. That's how we truly live: We love. And love is a verb. An action word. You can't just say, "I love you." You have to put your money where your mouth is. You have to SHOW people that you love them. But we'll get deeper into this in the next few days.