Follow the Way of Love

The call of God to every Christian is to a way of life, the way of love. Because God is love and we are to be transformed into his likeness, we too have the high calling of learning to love as God loves.

We know we fail, and we fail often to express the love of God according to the standard he set. Yet, like an infant learning to walk, we keep putting one foot in front of the other, getting up when we fall, and keep on heading in the desired direction. Love is action, not only a feeling; love includes emotion, but it is an emotion directed away from self for the good of others.

In this society "love" is presented as a means to fulfill one’s own selfish desires. If the one "loved" does not meet our expectations, then we fall out of love. The love God grows within us is a love that never stops loving, never stops desiring the best for the one loved. God’s kind of love isn’t the "Santa Claus" kind of satisfying our gift list; his love works to build his kind of spiritual gifts as part of our character so we can love God and love others (1 Corinthians 12:7; Galatians 5:22-23).

Love is how we feel towards others, how we treat them, not just what we can do for them or give them, even though practical help is part of loving others (1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Matthew 25:31-46).

Love does no harm; love follows the instructions of our heavenly Father by honoring him, by honoring our parents, by saving life, not taking lives, by giving to others, not taking from others what belongs to them, by preserving reputations, not tearing them down, by rejoicing in another's honors and blessings, not by envying what they have. You might recognize these as a recap of the Ten Commandments which reveal our sinful nature and give us basic guidelines for living a moral life. Jesus taught us how to go beyond the simple "Thou-Shalt-Nots" to a life of doing good, not just avoiding evil.

Jesus warned his disciples that in the last days "the love of most will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12). He chided the religious leaders for neglecting justice and the love of God (Luke 11:42).

Love is simple: it does no harm (Romans 13:10); it does good to all people (Galatians 6:10); it is the greatest of God's gifts (1 Corinthians 13:13).