Love in action

What is love? Love is not an emotion. Love is not that walking on air feeling. Love does not grow cold or wear out. Love does not betray. Love is not consumed with self. Love seeks the good of the other person at all times. Love is forgiving in response to attack. Love is patient. Love returns good for evil. Love rejoices when others are blessed, even at the expense of self. Love is gentle in the face of harshness. Love knows not pride. Love gives and gives again, but asks no reward. Love is of God and only those who know Him can truly be loving.
In all this I have only described love in action. It is a choice, a conscious choice that goes entirely against human nature. In and of ourselves we do not know how to love, nor can we live it out. Only through God's grace are we able to demonstrate true love. Why? Simply because love is foundationally self-sacrificing, but we are entirely self-seeking. We are consumed with self and desire only to satisfy our own wants. Often something that appears loving on the surface is in actuality done through pride or in order to gain something in return.
The world and culture around us knows nothing of genuine love. All too often infatuation or romantic feelings are interpreted to be the real thing. Couples get married because they believe themselves to be in love, yet in a few short months or years that feeling wears off and there is no foundation of true love to stand on. The result is misery and, more often than not, divorce. Most of the crumbling marriages we see today would be saved if husband and wife would only give of themselves to each other in sacrificial love. However as was previously noted, humans do not have the capacity in and of themselves to show true love. This can only find it's source in God Himself.
The clearest picture of true love in action is seen in God's plan of redemption for mankind. God is holy, full of justice and mercy, and the personification of pure love itself. Mankind in it's wretchedness and gross rebellion, it's hatred of God and all things good, falls far short of God's righteous measure. There was nothing in us of beauty or worth. Nothing in the least that would draw the smile of a pure and holy God. And so when God, for the sake of His glory, reached down to us through the death of His only Son, He showed true love in all it's beauty. Self-sacrificing, seeking no reward, showing mercy and compassion in the face of anger and rebellion - truly this is astounding! Our response to such mercy should be humble repentance and belief.
Further, God's grace continues to reveal itself in the life of the Christian. Through the power of the Holy Spirit living in and sanctifying them, the believer learns to act out true love. When a Christian responds with forgiveness and kindness to a persecutor, they are daily putting into practice the agape love their Father teaches them. We see this also in the care and compassion for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ; through giving of time, prayer and resources for their blessing. And at the core of evangelism is found a deep heart of love for the souls of the unrepentant. It is by compassion born of God, that believers willingly give up even their very lives so that they might spread the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins. All this is done not through human ability or will, but only by God's grace changing hearts and empowering them to live with love and godliness.
Truly, love is of God and no other.

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Here is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 1 John 4:7-11