Love is a Verb – Sunday, March 01, 1981
Among the parts of speech common to the English language is the verb. As we learned in early grammar, the verb is an action word, a word used to express motion or exertion. When we classify any word as a verb, we give it a special meaning: we intend for it to symbolize an act, a deed, something accomplished, something done.
The word love, among other things, is a verb. Indeed, as it is used in the New Testament by Christ, the Author of love, it is almost always associated with specific actions or deeds. To love our neighbor as Jesus described it is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick. To love our enemy is to pray for him and treat him with kindness, and even to turn the other cheek. And to love God is to keep His commandments.
In each case, love is defined in terms of action. Christian love, then, is not only a principle, a thought, or an expression. To be properly defined it must go beyond theory to active demonstration and application. The first and great commandment to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,”1 and the second commandment which is to “love thy neighbor as thyself’”2 are therefore a mandate to act. It is no more possible to truly love God and man without action than it is to transmit light by memorizing Einstein’s theory of relativity.
The divine love of God toward His children is also based upon the principle of action. Because of love the universe was organized. the stars and planets set in their respective orbits; and man, the spiritual offspring of God, started upon the path to eternal life.
It was the sublime love of Christ which led Him to the cross to act out in agony His final demonstration of universal affection.
Thus it is that all of our own charitable feelings and intentions toward humankind weigh less than one single act of love. The thoughts and words of love require works of love.
For love is a verb.
1 The New Testament, Matthew 22:37
2 The New Testament, Matthew 22:39
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March 01, 1981
Broadcast Number 2,689