Moving From Emotion To Mission

Moving from Emotion to Mission

How do you define love? Webster’s dictionary defines it as, “An intense feeling of deep affection.” This seems like a reasonable definition of love, but is it? Do Christians define love the same way? Is culture distorting love and developing a new definition that is challenging the display of truth in our society? These might be questions you have considered before, but now, more than ever, believers need to be reminded of what love is and how to demonstrate this to an unloving and unloved society. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity states, “Charity means love, in the Christian sense. But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the emotions but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.”

The Apostle Paul in Galatians 6 gives one final plea for believers to “not boast in their flesh.” Paul writes in Galatians 6:14-15 – “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” When we are a “new creation” in Christ (Gal. 6:15), we have the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16–26) to move away from our own self-centeredness and to think of others.

This week, let’s consider Paul’s plea as a challenge for us to go beyond ourselves, live for others, and share the Gospel. Our demonstration of love for others outside the church will have a huge impact in helping re-establish our culture’s perspective of what love is.