THE WILL TO LOVE - Vital Christianity

93Jesus freely expressed His emotions. When Jesus saw Mary, and the Jews who had comewith her to mourn the death of her brother Lazarus, weeping, the Bible states that Jesus was“deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” and that He “wept’ (Jn 11: 33,35).Paul was also uninhibited in showing his feelings. To the Christians at Thessalonica Paulwrites, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel ofGod but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (1 Th 2:8). He speaks ofmaking every effort to see them because of their “intense longing” (v. 13; 3:6).In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian Christians, after having rebuked and correctedthem, he lavishes his affection upon them. He writes:“I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would liveor die with you. I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you. I amgreatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy know no bounds.For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we wereharassed at every turn–conflicts on the outside, fears within. But God, whocomforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by hiscoming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longingfor me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy wasgreater than ever . . .In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see howhappy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. I hadboasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just aseverything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus hasproved to be true as well. And his affection for you is all the greater when heremembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling.I am glad I can have complete confidence in you” (2 Co 7:3-7,13-16).After Paul gave his farewell address to the Ephesian elders “they all wept as theyembraced him and kissed him” (Ac 20:37).From these examples in God’s Word we see that love is also feeling. To ignore or rejectfeelings is to invite callousness. Paul condemned the wicked for their inability to showcompassion: “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so asto indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Eph 4:19)We are, in fact, challenged to express our emotions our feelings. Paul writes, “rejoicewith those who rejoice mourn with those who mourn” (Ro 12:15). We are to empathize with ourfellow human being. When people are hurting our hugs, our tears, our tender listening ear oftenmean more than spiritual cliches. Caring is often expressed more effectively by our demeanorthan by our sincere but often inappropriate words of counsel. Words simply cannot take the placeof feelings. May we not be stingy with our feelings for other people.