Where is the Love?

If Christianity was reduced to one word, that word would be--LOVE. It must be. Religious leaders pressed Jesus as to which was the greatest commandment. His immediate response was this in Mark 12:29-31, "Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The trouble with love is that most people don't know what it is. Most people, including those packing the pews, is they think of love as a noun more than a verb. The classic definitions of love are to have a deep, tender, ineffable (unable to describe with words) feeling of affection toward (a person); to have a feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person, pet, or treasured object; to embrace or caress, or to have intercourse with. By these definitions, love for my mountain bike or for my wife are the same. Feelings that one cannot describe with words is love? The only verb here has to do with physical contact!

The Bible defines love as something to be done more than something possessed. I often lose pocket knives. I don't like carrying a large one, so they often slip out of my pants pocket into seat cushions or who knows where. People talk about losing love in the same context. The Righteous Brothers summed it up best, "You've lost that loving feeling." Loving feelings lost are proceeded by loving actions ignored. Where is the love? It is right where you left it.

Peace,
Stan