Christianity uncovered: Love; Action or Feeling?

In today's day and age, love is seldom reffered to as something a person does, rather, it is usually thought of as something that has a "spark" to it and can be forgotten about over time. In my very first post; biblical love, I talked about love as, contrary to popular belief, not being a feeling for the reason that the bible tells us that love never ends and feeling's come and go. I would like to expand on this concept and explain how to apply it to our love for God and how God apply's it to his love for us.

I would first like to quote a verse out of 1 Corininthians to build off of:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong doing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Building off of this verse, we can realize that love is slow to anger, it is not boastful or envious, nor is it rude or prideful. Now if we think about this deffinition of the word love, how does it differ from that which most humans think of love today?

If I were to come up to a girlfriend and boyfriend who were arrogantly fighting but still had no intentions of breaking up, and I went over to them and asked them if they loved eachother, I would not be surprised, nor do I think any of you would be, if they responded saying "Yes, we are just fighting," or something to that effect. This is quite frankly a perversion of the word love, love is in fact an action, not a feeling.

The way the bible defines love is all by actions: selfless, not arrogant, not irritable, rejoices with the truth. Love is the action of controlling your actions and feelings, but it is not a feeling that comes and goes; for love endures all things. In order to fully understand the word love though, we must look at how God loves us.

1 John 4:16 "So we have come to know and believe the love God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love abides in , and God abides in him."

We never speak of love in the way it is expressed in 1 John today. We never say that someone IS love. We may say they do love, but I can honestly say that I have never heard it stated in this manner. If God is love, what does that mean? It means that God endures all things, He bears all things, He is selfless and does not envy or boast. With this knowledge, we have the ability to take a great leap into a few of God's divine characteristics and therefore, respond to them better.

How do we love God then? By believing in Him, by trusting Him, by attempting to follow his commandments and rejoicing in the faith we have in Him. Without this love for God, there is no love for God's chosen people (1 John 5:1). Without love for God, life is a mere pointless breeze that will blow but have no good, or spiritual, or even meaningful effect on anyone. Without love for our savior and Lord, your life, although contrary to logic, will cease to have meaning.

1 Corinthians 13:2

"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all

knowlege, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,

but have not love,

I am nothing."