On March 24, there was one tweet that annoyed some people a bit. The tweet goes like this: #Love is not an emotion; it is a #decision and a #commitment.

Well, first, let’s define what emotion is. Emotion is defined as any of the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, hate, love, etc.

So, if we say, “Love is an emotion,” we pretty much are saying love is nothing but a feeling. Feeling is something we all experience as we go through life. We sometimes feel fearful and another time, we feel like we can conquer the whole world. Sometimes we feel like we have good feeling towards someone, and another time, we feel like we don’t have any feeling for them and we don’t even stand their presence for a second.

Can we then consider that experience of feeling high and low as love?

When we say, love is an emotion, we are saying something contrary to the love the Bible is talking about.

The Bible says, God is love! (1 John 4:8) When we say love is an emotion, we pretty much are saying God is a soup of different good feelings (some say, – like Fifty Shades of Gray – bad feelings such as pain and fear can be defined as love. That is simply ABSURD!).

The Bible says,

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)

If there is any emotion in love, it is attached with the main feature of love, “rejoices with the truth” and “doesn’t delight in evil.” But we can’t say, feeling of delight is love.

Oh, love is not an emotion! Love is God! And God showed us how we can imitate Him; how we love Him and others.

God loved us and gave us His Son Jesus Christ while we were sinners (Romans 5:8). Why? Because love is kind. If we accept His Son Jesus Christ, God promised us to give us an eternal life (John 3:17). Why? Because, love makes a promise to never break it. God didn’t just say He loves us but He expressed His love by giving His Son as a sacrifice. Why? Because love is more than saying “I love you.” It is an action fully expressed in a sacrifice (Romans 5:8). God loved us forever. Why? Because love is stronger than death, it remains and nothing can change it! (Romans 8:39, Song 8:6, 1 Corinthians 13:8).

Oh, did I say, “Love is not an emotion?”

Maybe I already said that but let me say it here again. Love is not an emotion. It is a decision and a commitment one consciously and purposely make regardless of emotional ups and downs. Love is who God is and God is the One we come to find as we know and practice love; the love that remains forever, the love that never changes according to the weather of our feelings and emotions. ///