Love is not essentially a feeling or affection, but a way of behaving, and if it starts as a feeling, it must become more than a feeling if it is truly to be love. Love does something; it gives; that is how it establishes its identity. "By this we know love, that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:16-18). Again: "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God... In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loves us, we also ought to love one another" (4:7, 10-11).
A Way of Behaving
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