As you know from last week Jacob, my little brother, traveled to Florida to see his girl friend. Thankfully Tami did not answer the phone while they were on a date, but there was trouble. She attends a conservative Christian school, which meant Jacob could not he could not spend the night with her, but she did not prepare a place for him to sleep. So Jacob bounced around each night and even spent one night in his car… as he left Florida, he wondered if Tami could be the one. Or was this terrible weekend a sign that they were not falling in love… 

As a people we tag the phrase “I love” to a strange assortment – from the Veggie Tales love of Cheeseburgers (which would even clean up dirty cheese off the floor in an effort to transform an ordinary burger) to students who are enamored with the Nintendo Wii! Of course we will admit we do not really “love” ice cream or gymnastics, still we wonder what does the word love mean?

Often we consider love a feeling, but what happens when the feeling is gone. Did love dry up? Or others have called love an action (like DC Talk, “love is a verb”), but can effort and work be love? Works will not get us into heaven, but falling in love with Christ will take us there. So action is not love, but they are a product of love.

When I decided to marry Megan my dad sat me down to speak of love. He told me that love was not a feeling, nor was it an action. Instead love was a commitment. A commitment to stand beside, to support, to follow, to relationship. Commitment would mean action and create feelings, but those would only be by-products. True love was a commitment to relationship – no matter the circumstances!

To love Jesus is not about a mountain top feeling or religious works, instead to love Jesus is commitment. To commit our lives to relationship with Him. To commit to following him. Check out John 21:15-19.