Ah… love! It can drive us crazy! In fact, what makes us unbalanced is when we love only with our emotions, only with our soul. Love is not only an emotion,

it’s primarily a decision. Of course, there are always emotions that come with love, and they are nice emotions. But your love will never be complete without reasoning.

Philippians 1.9 (NIV) says “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.” In the Greek, knowledge and insight, refer to a moral discernment, the analysis of information, in other words, rational thought, not emotions.

And why should we seek knowledge? Verses 10-11 : “so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” If our love for God is only emotional, it will be more difficult to be filled with the fruit of righteousness, and to be pure and blameless if our salvation. We need to study the Bible, to analyze it, and digest it. If we do that, then when our emotions are tested, we can stand on the facts that we have learned, and on our knowledge of Jesus.

The same thing goes when we start having feelings for someone. Our love must be a mix of emotions and sound thinking. When trials come in our relationships, and our emotions fail, we still have our convictions to stand on.