Love in Action

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
— John 3:16

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
— John 15:13

God’s love and man’s love in these verses is the same kind love. It is love in action, a love that costs, because the object of the love is prized, a willed love.

At the theatre, because pure emotion is facile, three-quarters of the audience may cry, but . . . very few of them will be unable to sleep when they get home, or will even lose their appetite for a late supper. . . . A man may weep over a novel which he will forget in two or three hours, although the same man may be made insane, or may have his character changed for life, by actual experiences which are far less terrible than those of which he reads, experiences which at the moment may produce neither tears nor any other obvious nervous effect.
— Graham Wallas, Human Nature in Politics

Habitually to enjoy feelings without acting upon them is to be a sentimentalist.
— Jacques Barzun, Classic, Romantic, and Modern