True Love

This is a devotional I read today that I found insightful, especially being that I am teaching on Love as a Sacrifice tomorrow A.M.

In grammar a noun names a person, place, thing, or idea whereas a verb shows the action of the sentence. I teach these two concepts each year in my 8th and 9th grade English classes. I have always reinforced the fact that no single word should be used exclusively as one specific part of speech. For instance, a person can run (verb) or buy running shoes. I never doubted that point until I began studying love in The Bible.
Jesus is the ultimate symbol of love. He is God in the flesh. This is indeed important, but what Jesus did for us is much more important than simply who he is. After all, we are all God’s children and were created in His image. Love is defined by our actions not our identity. Actively loving our neighbors involves taking risks, which opens up the possibility of ridicule and rejection. I cringe when I think of opening myself to that kind of attack, but then I remember a sentence from a book “Risk is spelled F-A-I-T-H.”
Loving people is not always an easy task in today’s society that is very self-centered. God warns us in 1 John 3:13, “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you,” as true love involves selfless, not selfish giving. God then goes on to tell us three verses later in verse 16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” Society often glamorizes this verse through songs and movies in which the “hero” proclaims to his heroine, “I will die for you!” I used to fantasize and daydream about meeting someone like that. I would hear Jon Bon Jovi singing, “I’d live and I’d die for you...Steal the sun from the sky for you...Words can’t say what love can do…” as I envision my hero and I dancing to I’ll Be There For You. It all seemed so incredibly romantic until I read the footnote for 1 John 3:16 in my Life Application Study Bible. “Sometimes it is easier to say we’ll die for others than to truly live for them—this involves putting others’ desires first.” I thought long and hard about those words and the truth was staggering.
I consider myself a loving person, but I am human. I never once considered that when I tell people “I love you” or give them a hug that subconsciously I was looking for something in return. Furthermore, it never even donned on me that a person who did the exact same thing held those same insincerities. It wasn’t until I found God that I was able to even admit this “unspoken” truth because it would mean admitting that I am just as selfish as the rest of society. We must realize; however, that love comes from God through the Holy Spirit. When we open our hearts to God, his love will flow through us. It will become easier to extend a hug to a death row inmate, who never knew love or parental guidance. It will become easier to actively listen to an angry and rejected teenager attacking you because you are the only one there. It will become easier because our actions will be less about us and much more about HIM. Indeed, love is a verb, NOT a noun.