Country singer (and writer of the greatest redneck Christmas song ever, Merry Christmas from the Family) wrote a song called Love's a Word I Never Throw Around. I think we could all stand to process that idea and talk about our use of the word. Just this afternoon, while on a break from writing this sermon, I told someone I loved gas station meat pies. Clearly, I need to spend more time reflecting on the true meaning of love.

So what is love? How do we talk about love if we don't really want to experience it? What if we have some hangups on the whole idea of love?

You see, we see love as an after effect. It's a response. It's never pre-existent. And if we are looking at the fruits of the spirit as characteristics of God which the Holy Spirit plants un us, the direction love comes from matters.

This is from 1st John, a book in the New Testament.

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 1 John 4:7-12

The direction of love is before the action. It isn't an after effect, in fact, it just well might be the first action. So how do we apply that to our lives? How do we love like Jesus loved? Do we really need to love? What about the people I really don't want to love?