Love is not something we do. An argument of logic.

In this post I want to run a little logic problem; I want to prove that LOVE is not something we DO, that it's not a thing but actually love is something we can BE.

Let's begin by looking at a couple of things the Bible says about love.  First:  "Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love."  1 John 4:8.  

GOD is love.  Ah, that makes LOVE a PERSON!  And I have already proven the premise! But let's see if we can further figure out what that means for us about God.  Can we discover a little bit more about God by using this definition of God is love? 

I say, "YES!" 

Look at 1 Cor 13:4-8a   "Love is patient, love is kind.  It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interest, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.   Love never fails. ..."  

If God is love that means God = LOVE.  Logically speaking, that also means that Love is God or LOVE = God   So I can just as easily change the words to 1 Cor 13:4-8a to "God is patient, God is kind.  ..." and I can know more about God's ways of being. 
"Wait," you say.   The next statement would be 'God is not jealous,' but the Bible says God is a jealous God.  Doesn't that blow this definition of God being love out of the water? 

Not at all:  Remember, we must always look at the context of a text when we are trying to interpret it - and remember that translation is often difficult because words have different nuances in different languages.   Let's take a look at one of those Bible verses which proclaim God as a jealous God:     Deut 4:24   Moses is reminding the Israelites that God made a covenant with them.  He is reiterating that they are not to have any idols, that is they are not to have any false gods - because God is a jealous God.  The Hebrew word used for that statement is from the adjective 'qanna' which expresses the idea of intense feeling focused on solicitude for someone ... It says that God has a zeal for His people.  The definition used in this instance does not contain the idea of envy - which is the definition meant in the Corinthians passage.   (As an aside, there is another archaic definition of jealous which holds the meaning of 'demanding loyalty.')

So we see that in the Corinthians passage, the word jealous is being used in the context of being envious.   God is certainly not envious. ...

I can take this one step further.  If I want to find out if I really LOVE my neighbor, I can deposit  my name in that spot ... Can I say I am patient?  Am I kind?  Am I jealous, rude, quick-tempered?  Do I brood over injury?   etc?  And I could ask that about my spouse (or friend -- etc)  Does he love me?  Well, is he patient?  Is he kind ... and so on.  Get the idea?

So, if I want to be an example of Jesus to the world and Jesus is God, then I need to be an example of LOVE to the world and I need to make those statements about myself true.  

But, that's not the focus of this post.  This post is to show that love is not something we do.  And if I use the Bible for my definition, then that is so.  Love is not something we do; Love is actually a person. 

What do you think?