When Jesus tells us to love, it isn’t a feeling, it’s an action
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
One little four-letter words from the New Testament can be big stumbling block for someone living a cowboy lifestyle: love.
The reason we stumble is because we don’t understand the meaning of the word in a biblical context.
Many scholars focus on three main Greek words that translate to “love” and appear in the scriptures we get our English translations from: agape, phileo and eros. When we see the word in the Bible, it is mostly as agape or phileo and we need to know which Greek word it connects with. Agape means an unconditional and sacrificial love. Phileo means a deep friendship or brotherly love. Eros is the romantic word that we most often associate with the word love.
Almost every cowboy, believer or not, has encountered the first form of the word in the verse from John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
It isn’t a romantic love that led Jesus to die on the cross for us but a sacrificial one that caused him to give up his own life knowing it would create a way for any of us to be with him in Heaven. This comes to us through our repentance of our sins, our desire to be forgiven of those sins and our belief in who Jesus was and what he did in that loving, sacrificial moment.
It’s this kind of love that God used to draw me away from a successful career and into ministry full time, living for a time in my van just to make it work. Negative stereotypes exist for a reason and give people reasons to find the cowboy crowd pretty unlovable, or even unlikable, sometimes for the way they live or conduct themselves. God built in me a deep caring, love, if you will, for the cowboy community and it’s why I’m available 24 hours a day if any from the ranch or rodeo side reaches out to talk or in need.
Love from the word “phileo” is demonstrated in the story of Lazarus and his resurrection by Jesus. John 11:3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” People Jesus had a close personal relationship with sent for Jesus when he was gravely ill and referred to the deep brotherly love he had for Lazarus.
This is a love most rodeo cowboys should be able to understand. While many may not use the word, “love” to describe how they feel about the other competitors they are closest to but they still understand the deeper connection they have for that person that causes them to care about the person’s life and successes or failures more than they do someone they don’t know as well.
The love we most often associate the word with is eros yet it doesn’t even appear in the New Testament. This is the romantic love we all know and understand and while the Greek word isn’t used, this type of love still exists in scripture from the Song of Solomon to New Testament teachings on marriage.
It’s the first way we understand the word love that should motivate a Christian cowboy to take action. Jesus calls us to live out a sacrificial love for others, even our enemies. This is action, often difficult and not something that should ever leave us thinking love is a weak word. Love takes sacrifice and is seen more than it’s felt. It’s seen when we give money to a homeless person and it’s seen when we take time to tell someone about Jesus and his own demonstration of love on that cross. Because he loved us in that way, he asks us to love others sacrificially as well.
That kind of love takes strength and because of that, should appeal to the cowboy crowd.
Neither brotherly love or sacrificial love should challenge a cowboy’s sense of masculinity. In fact, think about the men and cowboys you know out there and more often than not, it’s the ones who demonstrate these words in their own actions that are likely looked up to the most.
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