This Is What Love Feels Like. It Feels Nice!
I know there are confusing messages regarding love these days. I know they have been confusing for a really long time. Even back in the 50’s, when we started watching TV (black and white, of course), and the 60’s when color TV’s were more available and affordable, most of us kids didn’t notice it, but true love was already being perverted and twisted. Love became almost exclusively sexual, and believe me, I am not against the sexual aspect of love.
God’s clear direction given in His Word and by the living Word, Jesus Christ, is that His love is much more than physical and even more than behavioral. Some would purport that love is what you “do”, and I agree; but I want to push the concept to the places I believe scripture teaches.
In John 14: 15 Jesus lets us know that loving Him will lead to obedience. It is a promise that loving God means we’ll want to and work to do what He commands. Then in John 14: 21,23 Jesus lets us know that obedience is a way to show we love God by keeping His commands. But in 1 Corinthians 13 where love is defined, the Apostle Paul goes further than obedience. He says love is patient, kind, …. Well, let’s just read it in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
Did you notice that as Paul describes love, he includes attitudes, emotions, feelings, and qualities that aren’t simply rote obedience. He certainly means there are rational, behavioral aspects of God’s love; but there are also emotional, relational facets to this diamond we call love.
One more thing:
That same apostle Paul describes love again in his letter to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 2: 7,8,11,12
It reads as follows:
Instead, we were like young children among you.
Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. … 11For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
Did you see that? Look at the words describing Paul’s relationship with the church there. (we cared for you, we loved you so much, as a nursing mothers, as a father deals with children, encouraging, comforting,…)
When we meet the need for affection as we define it in the Intimate Encounters workbook: “expressing care and closeness through physical touch and through words such as “I love you” or “I care about you”, it will be done with actions but it will also be conveyed by attitudes and emotions. Love should be seen and felt. Just seeing love done is certainly great, but seeing it and deeply knowing it in your heart is a dimension of another kind.
My thought is this: If we love someone, they ought to know it. They can know it be seeing actions and by feeling a heart connection. Jesus said we are to love as He loves us (John 13:34-35), and I believe Paul was describing Jesus’ love. Now, let’s love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength; and let’s love our “neighbors” (near ones) as we love ourselves. If you want to just see love by others actions, that’s up to you, but as for me I would like to see it in actions and feel it in my soul. I want to know the warmth of a deep heart connection if at all possible, and I believe it is. I am learning how to give it and receive it. God’s love is better than I ever imagined. Ephesians 3: 17-19