In the scriptures God’s love, or Agape, is not an emotion but an act. It is not simply a word spoken, but a gift given. The gift might be the forgiveness that I extend to someone who has hurt me. It might be the acceptance I offer to someone who is different. It might be the generosity with which I respond to someone in need. It might be the kindness and patience I show toward a person who for whatever reason is behaving badly toward me or someone I love. Real love will always be wrapped in an action. Meaningful fellowship will be experienced when those action wrapped love gifts are shared. God is our example. His forgiveness, acceptance, kindness and generosity are never limited or conditional. They are all given freely and spontaneously. And they all say with a clarity that can never be questioned, ‘I love you.’
“Dear children, let us not merely say that we love each other, let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.” 1 John 3: 18-20.
Consistent with all the New Testament writers John does not speak of love or hatred or indifference as feelings but as actions. As Cain demonstrated his hatred by murdering Abel, so we demonstrate our anger, hatred or indifference by destructive behaviours, like rejecting and disenfranchising people we do not like. As Jesus demonstrated the love of God by dying on a cross, so we are called to show love in life giving and life preserving ways. Our actions will show that we belong to God, even if we feel guilty that our initial negative feelings do not always match our loving behaviour. “God is greater that our feelings.” What does that mean? Every situation or event will evoke in us emotions or feelings. If we allow it these feelings will dictate our response. But if we recognise that God is greater than our feelings, we will allow him, not our emotions, to influence our decisions and behaviours. Not only will he move us toward being loving, but the guilt produced by our negative feelings will be assuaged and we can come boldly to God and receive from him whatever we need in order to obey his command to love others.
When God expressed his love to us by giving us the gift of his Son, he extended the hand of fellowship to all people. He did not send Jesus to judge us or to place us under an obligation, but as an expression of his love for us. It was not an emotional response to our love for him. It was real love. It flows from a reservoir of undeserved, unmerited love, which has never and will never run dry. What is amazing is that he knew most people would reject his gift, but he gave it anyway. It was like a person who every year wraps a present for an estranged adult child, knowing that they always send it back unopened. The consequence of being so undeservingly loved by God is that we are empowered and inspired to love others in the same way. In fact, John says that “as we live in God our love grows more perfect.”
He also tells us about the expanding nature of this fellowship. It begins with the faithfulness of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to each other and then includes all those who believe, and ultimately results in all believers embracing each other in a loving accepting community and finally in that community living a life of love to the whole world. God’s love and faithfulness is expressed by his gift of eternal life. The evidence that we have eternal life is that we live in obedience to God and with love for others.
God’s commandments are not burdensome. They can be summed up with one statement about loving God with our whole heart and our neighbour as ourselves. That is all we must remember, and yet it is enough to change the entire way we see ourselves and others. How personally transforming obedience to this commandment is! How huge is the potential for such love to transform families and indeed whole communities! It would be unbelievable except for one undeniable fact; Jesus has already loved like that. And he has given us the Holy Spirit to help us do the same.”
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