It requires action, as apposed to "feeling"

1Jo 3:18* My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

Is there not an action of the will required to properly love? It's true meaning is held in a principle, as apposed to a warm fuzzy feeling one obtains in the presence of lust.

The statement that love is a verb not a feeling causes me some distress due to the information in 1st Corinthians 13 . Note that Oratorical skills to the description of speaking in toungs of men and of angels,faith to remove mountians, giving all my goods to feed the poor and giving my body to be burned profit me nothing if I don't have love. Now how am I to value my activities.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself. Jesus also says love one another as I have loved you. This also seems to raise the bar above the old testament

How to put this together in a lifestyle statement is something I could use some inspiration with.


Knight

Right on Knight; I have some burrs that irritate my wife, and all the flowers I buy don't create an action to fix the issue. What can I do ? Neither feelings nor actions bring love to the surface when this is in the forefront.

Knight! What a great surprise to check in here and see your name. Long time no see, but still remember the great fun I had growing up with your kids.

Be careful if you start posting on this site, your presence just may raise the IQ level to new heights!

EQ,

It is my belief that you can have the action without love, but you cannot have love without action. That is what I understood the statement that Fred made to mean, and that is also how I understand 1 Corinthians 13.

Your thoughts?

To me Love is both a feeling and an action verb. We can feel in love. But I think that the love that God is talking about when he talks about us loving one another is truly an action. We must take action to put love into use in our own homes and our church and the world around us. When we truly love, it is evident to others and the people that are disdained by others are the ones that feel comfortable in our presence.
But I wonder sometimes how much we recognise that this applies to loving ourselves as well. I know that I personally struggle with this as has been so notoriously pointed out here to me lately.


Love and prayers, Locklady

Fred -you had a reference to lust in your first statement that I missed. It seems to me that this is one of those forces driven by a desire for self fullfilment described in Ecclesiastes "I denied myself nothing and discoverd that all is vanity or chasing after wind."

TR- Love without action or love with action is difficult to resolve. Let me ask you you a question: Is it possible to hate without action and what are it's symptoms?

God is holy.
God is love.

God blesses His creation, disciplines those He loves and punishes everyone He accepts as a son.

Hank - I understand your statement when you say that neither feelings nor action bring love to the surface. That term or type of love is what I cannot seem to find a descriptive statement for. Love discipline pleasure -----------------?

Knight