Love Is an Action
by Rick Warren
let us really show it by our actions. 1 John 3:18 (NLT)
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Love is something you do. Do you really love someone? Let’s see how you act toward that person. You show love by what you do, not just by what you feel.
Love is more than attraction and more than arousal. It’s also more than sentimentality, like so many of today’s songs suggest. By this standard, is love dead when the emotion is gone? No, not at all. Because love is an action; love is a behavior.
Over and over again, in the Bible, God commands us to love each other. And you can’t command an emotion. If I told you “Be sad!” right now, you couldn’t be sad on cue. Just like an actor, you can fake it, but you’re not wired for your emotions to change on command. Have you ever told a little kid, “Be happy!” I’m trying, daddy!
If love were just an emotion, then God couldn’t command it. But love is something you do. It can produce emotion, but love is an action.
The Bible says, “Let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions” (1 John 3:18 NLT). We can talk a good act: “I love people.” But do we really love them? Do you really love them? Our love is revealed in how we act toward them.
Beautiful. This reminds me of the song “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love.”
I like the idea that love is an action, not only an emotion.
We’ve been studying this very thing in Sunday School…love as an action..especially those we encounter that are not so easy to love. Thank you for your message. God Bless.
Love is an action that can be felt by others. As stated you can not just say that you love someone without something behind it. ” Words are said and then done, but an action will live on forever to through those who recieve it”. Love is eternal for those who you can give it to.