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Outstanding homily today by @mattwilcoxen...one of my favorite passages in the Bible, but I felt like I heard it anew...made me think of the active nature of love.
We have in our heads, in our society; that love is an emotion and a feeling. That because another person causes us to FEEL, we desire to ACT.
That has it precisely backwards.
Our feelings are irrelevant to love. We are called to love others. We are called to act.
That has it precisely backwards.
Our feelings are irrelevant to love. We are called to love others. We are called to act.
There is nothing in the scripture that makes our actions their responsibility—otherwise, loving our enemies is a foolhardy command.
Love is an action, not a feeling. Don’t believe me? Look at the scripture.
Love is an action, not a feeling. Don’t believe me? Look at the scripture.
John 3:16. For God so loved the world THAT HE GAVE. Not he felt. Not he had affection for. He GAVE. He DID something. Yet, how often do we not feel that we owe anything to someone so we fail to act.
He loves us so much He sent His son to die.
He loves us so much He sent His son to die.
God is a community in Himself. He is a community of three. The trinity is community. He loved us so much He sent His son to die, He separated himself for three days. Yet, we somehow think we should offer less when it is inconvenient or difficult.
He loves us so much that he separates our sin from His perfection and draws us near to Him once more. He doesn’t drop them. He doesn’t forget them. He separates them from Him. As far as the East is from the West. That implies effort. Action. Choice. Agency.
And yet, we seem to think that such effort should not be required of us because it is difficult. It might require pain. It might require hearing the sin wasn’t one-sided. We forgive, but we don’t have to release them from their prison of sin.
Somehow, in determining love is a feeling, we’ve released our agency, our choice, and our duty. We have decided God OWES US more than we owe our fellow man, and in fact more than we owe God.
And we have it exactly backwards.
And we have it exactly backwards.
