Love pt. 3

I may or may not have ended my "series" on love. I don't really want to look, but I am going to continue it regardless. For today's post I actually have not one, but two Bible passages to show you. The reason behind using two is this: they both go hand in hand with each other. Sorry the passages are so long, I couldn't decide on which verses to choose for the second one.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
I John 3:16-18

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."
I John 4:7-21

The story behind me choosing both of the passages is kind of funny. I don't have a concordance in the back of my Bible, and so I decided to look up Bible verses about love on the webbernet. The site I used had both of the passages on there. The funny part is I had already highlighted some of the first passage, but failed to see the rest of it.

All of that aside, I am a firm believer that love is an action. I know people who think it is not an action but a feeling. My question for those of you who think that is: how can you feel your death for someone? It says in I John 3:18 "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." If you look back at my post Love pt. 2 I think you will see that the greatest form of love is dying for someone. How does one feel their death for another?

What really strikes me about both passages is they both talk about doing stuff. Whether it be God doing stuff or us. Another thing that sticks out is how it tells us if you say you love God but hate your fellow person, well then, you don't actually love God.

Why is it this way? God made everything including people. How can you love the artist but hate the art? Or how can you love the art but hate the artist? You can't, simple as that.