Love is a Choice

 

 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

—1 John 4:7-11

 

 

God's kind of love is not self-serving or self-seeking. Agape love will cause a person to lay down his life for another (John  15:13) because he has literally forgotten himself. Many times when heroes are asked why they put themselves in jeopardy to save someone else, they reply that they didn't even think about themselves. All they thought of was the danger to the other person. That's God's kind of love.

 

God's type of love involves emotions many times, but it is not an emotion. It is an act of the will. We can choose to love even when we don't feel like it. When we know God's kind of love, we can always conduct ourselves in a godly manner. God's kind of love is a choice.

 

God's kind of love is also the remedy for selfishness and pride. We cannot conquer ourselves by focusing on ourselves. The only way to win over self is to fall in love with God more than with ourselves. It is in discovering God's love that we lose selfishness, pride, and self-love.

 

Jesus didn't feel some emotional sensation when He chose to die for us, but that was the greatest demonstration of God's kind of love that the world has ever known. He made a choice in spite of His emotions. Because He was consumed with God's love, He acted appropriately, even when His emotions didn't agree.

 

Jesus is the ultimate example of God's kind of love.  

 

What kind of example are we?

 

(awm) 

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