Love as a Noun

22 years ago (Yes, it was in 1992) DC Talk had a hit with the song "Love is a Verb."  Most certainly throughout scripture we are commanded to exercise the love of Christ as we live in this world.  But today as I read in the Hunt/King The Mind of Christ bible study we are discussing love as a noun.
From page 199 it reads, "Ultimately, if we are to have the mind of Christ, God must be able to say of us, "They are love.""  The concept is that because Christ both willed the actions of love and embodied the essence of love we should too.  The authors point out that "Love as a verb is an act of the will.  Love as a noun is a fruit of the Spirit."  Yet, we are not given a free pass to sit back and wait for the Spirit to move us.  Doesn't work that way.  We still have our will and we must set that will into motion as the Spirit teaches.  You want to embody the essence of love?  You want to "be" love?  Then, Hunt and King say, you must yearn.  "Love yearns for communion with and spiritual perfection for its object."  A less confusing way to put this come from my Sunday school teacher Charlie Brown (no joke - that's his name.) Love is wanting what is best for the other person at great personal cost.  Sooooo, this is where it hits big - ready?  If we say we love Christ then should we not also want or yearn for what is best for Him, even at personal cost?
To say with every choice we have, "Lord, I love you best.  I desire to commune with you.   I want to spend time with you and to share my life with you. I want to do what will honor you.  I want my actions to point glory onto you.  Let nothing I do shame you or get your name dirty." This is what the Psalmist so often speaks to; a hunger, a thirst, a yearning to honor Christ due to the love that Christ himself is working in us.  
So what is that going to look like when the rubber hits the road?  Giving.  A decisive, active movement on my part to commune myself with my loved, to seek what will best them, and then to give it.  When we can learn to be love the noun we will easily be love the verb.  
From "Luv is a Verb" by DC Talk - 
"Back in the day, there was a man

Who stepped out of Heaven and he walked the land
He delivered to the people an eternal choice
With a heart full of luv and the truth in His voice

Gave up His life so that we may live
How much more luv could the Son of God give?
Here is the example that we oughta be matchin'
'Cause luv is a word that requires some action"