Love Without Action Isn't Love

Sunday’s Monday 02-11-18 I am truly thankful for this week as God has filled it with treasures for Pat and me. This week has had some project challenges, people difficulties but thank God, no flu, great doctors visit and a great aunt whose prayer to go home (heaven) was finally answered. Then today our daughter and son-in-law had us over for lunch and I was well blessed through their kindness and love. In light of this week containing Valentine's Day, I felt a need to update my interpretation of the symbolism and definition of the occasion. After searching, reading and trying to analyze my findings, it all boiled down to this excerpt from Valentine’s Day History on www1.cbn.com. The holiday originated as a day of feast to celebrate the life of Saint Valentine and his fight for love. I encourage you to take a few minutes to look it up www1.cbn.com/st-valentine-real-story for a better explanation. However, I did find sometime interesting, in 18th-century England Saint Valentine’s Day evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). In which for the most part is exactly what is taking place today. Love is being grossly misinterpreted, highly confined and attains little to no value, as the word LOVE has merely evolved into a lip service. Love is not meant to be a word, a gift, a place or a thing, LOVE IS LIFE! Now don’t get me wrong, gifts, actions and sentiments can be useful tools toward outwardly displaying a person’s love for another. However, you can’t, not show love for another if it is factually there! Love is a non-containable flow of goodness produced at the very core of who we are. God explains to us all through the bible that love is a life style and He gives us His perfect definition of love in, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV), 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Nowhere does it speak of me taking for granted that people know I love them. This tells me that I am to acknowledge this continually, without thought, as it is my heavenly spirit’s true nature and is in full accordance with God’s will. It is ridiculous for me to expect my wife to know that I love her if I treat her no better than a servant. She (like myself) is not a mind reader, neither is she an interpreter of the unveiled affection that I may have for her. People! We are all wearing suits of flesh to cover our fear, doubt, inhibitions and feelings. Ergo, “others can only know, what I chose show!” This is why, I believe that God coined the common sense found in, James 2:16 (NIV), If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? Now I realize that this scripture is used to describe faith but think on its application to love. “Love without action “cannot be love!” It is important to know that loving others has a cost! Just as in 2 Samuel 24:24 (NIV), 24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. Again, apply your thought on this toward love and think of your loves value toward others. Is it your best, is it open and apparent, is it valuable (filled with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)) and most important, is it ordained by God? I have said since I could talk, “I love it when people love me” and I’m sure the world feels the same way. It is a natural desire since we were created to love. However, the flip side to this is, we must become as lovable as we can be, through Jesus, to aid in others loving us. Author Ken Boa gives us this guide to live by: Love God Completely, Love Self Correctly, and Love Others Compassionately! “It works!”