“Love is a decision.” “You have to choose to love.” We’ve heard statements like these inside and outside of the church. Perhaps we understand what many are attempting to communicate. The sentiment is a reaction to the widely accepted notion that love is a feeling. But feelings are fickle and change constantly. So, if love is defined by the way you feel, love is always unstable.
Maybe we need to rethink the way we view love. Indeed, love does affect our feelings and it engages our decisions, but the source of love is more powerful than decisions or feelings. Instead of seeing love as something that is simply rooted in a decision or feeling, we should view love as a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
In this four-minute clip, Piper explains that love “is not just a decision you make moment by moment. It’s an overflow, a work of God within us.”
This is the tenth and final of John Piper’s ten short meditations on the Bible’s most highlighted verses, according to YouVersion. For more, choose from among the other nine below.
Matthew 6:33: God Will Give You Everything You Need | What does it mean when Jesus says “all these things” will be provided for you?
Romans 8:28: Life’s Deepest Pains for Your Greatest Pleasures | God is working all things for our good, not just giving us victory over these pains, but making us “more than conquerors” by having life’s greatest pains serve our everlasting joy.
Romans 12:12: Believer, Become What You Are | The Spirit within, and the word of God without, work together to make us new.
Isaiah 40:13: When God Works for You | God displays his glory not by our working for him, but by his working for us.
Jeremiah 29:11: I Know the Plans I Have for You | How can we lay claim to this hopeful promise made to Israel, God’s covenant people in Jeremiah 29:11?
Philippians 4:6–7: God Doesn’t Want You to Worry | The opposite of anxiety is peace. Anxiety is forbidden; peace is commended.
Psalm 37:4: Joy Is Obedience | The command is the condition of the promise. So delight yourself in me, God says, and I will satisfy your heart.
Proverbs 3:5–6: Three Steps to Stop Wasting Your Life | Avoid wasting your life by staying in the path of God’s grace and purpose for you.
Philippians 4:13: The Secret in Every Circumstance | Only when Christ is our central treasure do we truly have the wherewithal for life’s greatest wins and losses.
