Love is a Verb
by Bill Aumack
Morning, boys and girls. It’s my turn to tell you the story today. And today, Pastor is going to be talking about how we love like Jesus loved. I was thinking about that because Jesus showed a lot of love. So, how do we do that? I thought of a story that Jesus told. It’s in Luke, chapter 10. You can look it up today after church or have your mom or dad read it to you. It’s in Luke, chapter 10, and it’s called the story of the Good Samaritan.
Now, the story of the Good Samaritan is a story. It’s not necessarily something that happened; it’s what we call a parable to make a point. But in this story that Jesus told, there was a man, and he needed to go to the city to do some business. The problem was that he had to go through an area on a road in the mountain pass that was known for having robbers and bad guys—thieves there. They would attack people and steal their stuff. He was taking money with him because he was going to town to do business.
As he went through that area, sure enough, the bad guys came out and robbed him, beat him up really bad, stole his money, stole everything, and just left him lying there all beat up and hurt alongside the road. He was so beat up, he couldn’t even get up and walk away.
As he lay there, he heard somebody coming. He thought, “This guy will help him.” And it was a priest from the temple. But the priest saw him and said, “Oh no, there must be bad guys here,” and he crossed over to the other side of the road and kept on going.
A little while later, somebody else came. It was a Levite. The Levites were people who worked in the temple too. So, he was another kind of religious leader. He saw him, and he thought, “Oh no,” and he crossed over to the side, stayed away from him, and left him there too.
Then there was the third guy, a Samaritan. Now, the Jews didn’t like Samaritans because Samaritans were only part Jew. They were part Jew and part people from Samaria, so they were called Samaritans. The Jews didn’t think they were as good as the Jews were because they were not full-blooded Jews.
So, along comes this Samaritan, and he sees him. He stops, gets off his horse, helps him, bandages his wounds, lifts him up onto his animal—his horse or donkey—and takes him the rest of the way down the road, out of the pass, until they find an inn.
Now, an inn back in this day would have just been probably somebody’s house that had an extra room they could rent out. So, he drops him off at this house and says, “I want you to take care of this guy, and here’s some money. When he’s well enough to go home, I’m going on a trip. When I come back, I will stop and see if I owe you any extra money for the time he stayed here.”
Now, who do you think showed the most love for this individual? The priest? The Levite? The Samaritan? Yeah, I think it was the Samaritan too.
So, now you may be thinking, “That’s all great, but how do I show love to somebody like that? I can’t bandage somebody up. I’m just a little kid.” Well, how many guys have pets? Let me see your hands. Anybody got pets out there? Anybody got a pet, a dog, a cat? Yeah, we have pets at our house too. And how do you show love to your pet? You make sure they have food, right? You make sure they have clean water. Maybe it’s a dog; maybe you take them for walks, or you go out in the yard and play with them. If it’s a cat, maybe they like to be petted or stroked a little bit. You know, depending on what kind of pet you have, maybe what you do with them. But you spend time with them, right? And you show that you care.
See, there’s an old song that I used to listen to by a group called DC Talk, and they had one of their lines in one of their songs that said, “Love is a verb.” I don’t know if you remember from English class the difference between nouns and verbs. Nouns are people, places, or things. You know, that would be a noun, like this, the spoon. That’s a noun, right? Spoon is a noun; it’s a thing. Action is verbs. So, if I said, “Joshua ran,” Joshua is the noun, “ran” is the verb. It’s the action. Or if I said, “Sarah cleaned,” right? Sarah is the noun, “cleaned” is the action.
So, love is a verb. We show our love by our actions because love is a verb. So, how do you show your love? You show your love to your mom and dad by maybe doing your chores around the house without having to be told 17 times, right? You keep your room clean. You’re nice to your brothers or sisters or your cousins or whoever. How do you show love to your teacher at school? By listening in class, doing what the teacher may be asking you to do—whether it’s time to do math or do spelling or time to go to lunch. You’re doing what you’re instructed to do. How do you show love to your brother or your sister? You know, by getting along, by sharing your things.
So, there’s lots of ways that we can show our love and have this verb be an action. So, I want you to remember that. Love is a verb, and we show our love by our actions, just like the Good Samaritan did, just like we can do with our pets, our family, or our teachers. Show your love this week, all right?
Thank you for listening, boys and girls, and we’ll see you next time.