Questions on 1 John 4:7

This past Sunday, we began to work through our theme for early 2009 called "Here Is Love." We will be memorizing 1 John 4:7-12 together, and we started with just verse 7.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

I received a few questions on this verse last week, and I have received permission to share the questions and my responses here. The first one went something like this:

Is love something that we can decide to do, since it is given to us as a command?

Here's my response:

Is love an unpredictable, uncontrollable feeling, or is it an act of the will? I believe that saying love is either/or-- either pure emotion or pure decision-- is neither accurate nor wise. Love that is pure emotion is not very dependable, and love that is pure decision is not very desirable.

I think we can conclude from this verse and many other places where we are commanded to love God, our neighbor, and so on, that love does have an element of our will involved. There is intentionality and commitment that should be expressed in action. Many have lost these aspects of love and instead focus exclusively on the emotional dimension. We know this contributes to the high divorce rate, but there are so many other ways that our society is damaged by this understanding of love.

But, to strike the right balance, we must always pursue the emotional side of love as well. We can't manipulate it, but we can develop genuine concern and care for others through cultivating our own hearts in the realities of the gospel: God showed immeasurable mercy and grace to us in Christ when we were completely undeserving.