Love Is An Action

Love is an action, not a feeling as Hollywood would have you believe. Most feelings are the result of our actions. There are exceptions, however I would argue that you can always replace feelings with other feelings through your actions — good or bad.

In other words, we should not wait on God, because God is waiting on us to take action. This is what James was talking about when he said:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 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? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James 2:14-17

Always choose action. Part of that is being decisive, this helps God to carry out His will. This is how you can show your faith towards God. Believe that your choices and resulting actions will carry out God’s will. Be quick to decide and slow to change your mind. In order to be quick in your decision making you must seek and use wisdom so that you will make the right choices. How do you get this wisdom? Read the Bible – daily! You need the repetition to keep biblical wisdom in the forefront of your mind so you will remember to apply it to specific circumstances. God inspired a long list of believers to record their choices and actions in the 66 books of the Bible. These books contain wisdom for every aspect of life (remember Ecclesiastes 1:9, there is nothing new under the sun) — don’t waste your life through trial and error in an attempt to discern your own wisdom. There is no time for that and it’s already been done for us. Now is the time to act and carry out God’s commands.

The greatest commandments, spoken by Jesus himself state that we should:

Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:37-40

How do you love God? — By obeying His commands. This is what Jesus meant in John 14:23 when he said “…Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching…” Love is an action. Take action first and the feeling will follow. This is how God wired us. This is why God gave us so much guidance and wisdom in the Bible – so we could take the right action on the right things and grow to love Him more.

Show this love through your actions to others:

  • Forgive
  • Show mercy
  • Put others first
  • Be slow to anger
  • Do not repay evil with evil

Jesus showed His great love for us by doing all of these things through His suffering on the cross. Had He not shown His love through action, we would all be doomed.