 |
| Deuteronomy
6.5 (NIV) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. |
 |
| Love is something you do – not always something you can feel, but it’s real.* |
 |
We
may have reached an understanding of the nuances of the word “love.” We know
about the Greek words for different kinds of love: brotherly love, erotic love,
and God’s love. But while we know that love isn’t just a feeling, we can’t seem
to separate the action from the emotion. When we read that we are commanded to
love God with all our heart, we may misunderstand what is being required of us.
Can love, as we understand it, be turned on or off at will? Can it be commanded
of us?
According
to some Bible scholars, the Hebrew word that has been translated as “love” has
more to do with loyalty and fidelity than with caring. Where we think of the
heart as the seat of our emotions, the Hebrews meant it as a “place of thought
and will, of decision-making and conscience.”* If we can be
commanded to love God, it follows that we are able to choose to love or
choose not to love. Not the worldly, emotional kind of love but one that “transforms
obedience from legalism into an expression of personal commitment.”* In fact, it is liberating to
know that I can be obedient to his command to love him with all that I am –
even when I don’t “feel” like it.
|
 |
| Love is a decision.* |
*Quote sources available upon request.
No comments:
Post a Comment