Ecclesiastes 3:8   A time to Love…

 

  I think the word love is the most misused word in our society. Often, we mistake our feelings for love. Love is truly a choice that we make. Here is the definition of love in the Webster’s dictionary.

 

Love: (noun) a strong feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, such as for a parent, child, friend, or pet:

Love: (verb) to have a warm personal attachment to or deep affection for:

 

Those definitions truly miss the meaning of love. According to the Bible, love is an action, not an emotion.

 

1^st Corinthians 13:4  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

 

  Here the word charity is being used for love. Love is patient, kind, not jealous, does not speak badly of, and not prideful. Those all require some sort of action. Sure, you can put an emotional stimulus to them, but the emotion does not dictate the act of love. In Ecclesiastes, the author tells us there is a time for love, which means we have a choice whether to love or not. The Bible encompasses the meaning of love. Love requires something from you. We can say the phrase "I love you” til you are blue, but if there is no action behind it, it simply is just words.

 

John 3:16   For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

 God Himself sets the tone of what it means to give when you love. Do we give of ourselves to the ones we love, or do we just use empty words and emotionally "feel good”. So now the big question is when is it a time to love?

 

Matthew 22: (37) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 

  So first we can say it is time to love God! Pretty simple. I think we can all say we are going to fall short, once again we will say yes, I love God, but then where do we see giving of ourselves to and for God. Earlier we used the word charity for Love.  Charity is the act of giving generously. Pause for a moment and let’s ask ourselves am I giving to God? I’m not just talking money, but what about your time? Time is the most precious commodity, for it can never be replaced. Are we giving our time to Godly things? Are we being obedient to the path God wants us to be on? I had a conversation a while back with someone and we were talking about God and our Christian faith. This person stated how much they believed in God and everything, and I asked them how much time they spent reading the Bible, just in casual conversation. Their response was that they really did not have time to read the Bible, and that does not affect their love for God. I did not say anything in response to that, for I have had that attitude myself in the past. My conviction was, why would you not spend time on or with something or someone you say you love? When we look at the divorce rate in America, we can see many of the reasons for divorce go back to the lack of what is in 1^st Corinthians 13:4. We are marrying now a days for the emotional value in relationships and not the action value. As soon as the emotion changes, so does the status of our relationship. We are using our eyes to dictate what love is.

 

 The 2^nd time to love is to love our neighbor as ourselves. I have seen so many videos about how neighbors treat each other, and I always wondered how much strife these people live with on an everyday basis. No joy, always bickering. I guess at times it can’t be helped with the way we are in today’s society. We do not have the charitable, loving attitude we should have with each other. After all, it is commanded in Matthew 22:39. I recently had a new neighbor buy the property across the street from me, and they are nice people, but want to barter everything. He came over needing to see if he could use my lawn more and I said sure. He asked me how much I would charge him, and I said "nothing, be more than happy to help you out”. He refused to allow me to let him use my mower for free and insisted me to give him a price. I will be honest, I felt very uncomfortable to make my neighbor pay for anything in time of need. This was supposed to be a time for me to show love and it was being robbed of me. A long story short, we agreed on  a payment and went about our day. Having said that, love was shown by my actions. We can find so many instances when we will have the opportunity to show love. There is a time to love.

 

1^st Corinthians 13: (1) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. (2) And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (3)And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 

  I wanted to finish up here and go back to the 1^st verses in 1^st Corinthians 13. Even though love is an action, if we do not do it in the right mind, it does not mean anything. Once again, we are not dealing in the emotional state, but being in the right mind. Often, we are doing these acts of love and are expecting a return. Just as I stated the story about my neighbor, I was not expecting anything for being loving. But I can say my mind was in the right place.

 

  The Bible is full of examples of when it is time to show love. We must do our part to make time to love God, and to Love our neighbors.