Love is a verb, not a noun
June 25th 2009
There are different levels of love. You can have romantic love, love for friends and family love. But what does a love of God feel like?
I struggle with loving God. To me love is a warm fuzzy feeling you get deep inside. I might get this occasionally for God when things are going particularly well but it is intermittent and based on feelings.
I was listening to a talk by Andy Stanley today and he said something that really struck me: “Love is a verb, not a noun”. Basically, when we talk about love we talk about being in it or that we’ve found it. We talk about it as it is a something we get for someone.
What if we were to think about love as a verb; something we do?
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” – 1 John 4:7
What if, in order to understand what love really is, we need to do it first? Rather than waiting for the fuzzy feeling of love for someone before selflessly helping them why don’t we love them by selflessly helping.
I believe that this is what loving God is really all about.