Most people, too often than not, equate love with butterflies, fleeting emotions, and the thrill of the new. Pastor Enoch Boamah gives a touching and transformative correction. Drawing from the deep wells of scripture, specifically Hebrews 6:10, he challenges us to view love not as a feeling we fall into, but as a “labor” we choose to perform, because according to the scriptures, that is actually what love is. This shift in perspective from the emotional to the intentional is not just a semantic difference; it is the key to building lives and relationships that endure the world of chaos.
The Butterfly Love and The Labor of Love
We have been conditioned by media and modern culture to believe that love is primarily an involuntary reaction. We speak of “falling” in love as if it were a pit we accidentally stumbled into. Again, Pastor Enoch dismantles this myth. Love, he said, is hard work; it is “labor.”
The Greek word often associated with labor in the New Testament suggests toil that results in weariness. This is not to say that love should be miserable, but it acknowledges that true love requires the expenditure of our greatest resources: our time, our pride, our comfort, and our energy. When the butterflies inevitably fly away, what remains is the labor of love.
Love is the willingness to stay regardless of what the person does or shows you. So, people’s reactions do not determine my love.
Pastor Enoch Boamah
This is a radical stance; it removes the power from the other person and places the responsibility squarely on the “self.” If your love is determined by how someone treats you, it is not love; it is a transaction. True labor of love is independent of the immediate return on investment.
The Scriptural Foundation: Hebrews 6:10
At the heart of this teaching is the promise found in Hebrews 6:10 (KJV):
“For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
Pastor Enoch went further to tell us about the two critical components of this verse:
- The Nature of the Work: It is explicitly called a “labour of love.” And this confirms that love is an active, demanding pursuit. It involves “ministering,” serving others in practical and, a lot of times, in exhausting ways.
- The Character of the Witness: The verse begins with “God is not unrighteous to forget.” This is a powerful reassurance, in the moments where your labor goes unnoticed by men, or when the person you are loving seems ungrateful, the Creator of the universe is keeping a record. Your labor is never in vain because it is shown “toward His name.”
The Vertical Connection: Giving Yourself First
How do we sustain this kind of exhausting labor? How do we keep loving when the boat of our life is being tossed by the chaos of others?
Pastor Enoch points to the example of the Macedonian Christians in 2 Corinthians 8. Paul writes that in the midst of “a great trial of affliction” and “deep poverty,” they abounded in the riches of liberality. The question now is, how is that? And verse 5 gives the secret: “And this they did… but first gave their own selves to the Lord.”
This is the Vertical Connection. You can not consistently give what you have not first surrendered.
The End of Certain Discussions
Pastor Enoch went further to make a profound observation regarding this surrender. He notes that when a person has truly given themselves to God, certain discussions simply do not come up.
- “Am I being paid enough?”
- “Is this person treating me fairly?”
- “Do I feel appreciated?”
These questions are the language of the self, but when you are a “sacrifice” to God, you no longer own your rights; you own your responsibility. The discussion changes from “What am I getting?” to “How am I serving?” This is the essence of a high-performance mindset, moving beyond the language of “why I could not” and into the reality of “how I will.”
My dearest readers, one way I would love for us to look at this is that in the architecture of a human life, we are all builders. Every day, through our thoughts, words, and actions, we are laying bricks for the future, but many of us spend more time building walls than bridges. We build “Monuments of Nothingness” using the primary tool of the incompetent: the excuse.
The quote is as sharp as it is true: “Excuses are the tools of the incompetent; they are monuments of nothingness, and those who use them are not wise.” To the modern ear, this might sound harsh. Some people live in a culture that validates every reason for failure and cushions every fall, but for those who desire to live a life of value and faith, we must recognize that an excuse is simply a well dressed lie we tell ourselves so that we do not have to feel the sting of our own potential.
An excuse is not the same as a reason. A reason is an objective fact that explains a situation; an excuse is a psychological shield used to deflect responsibility. When we use the language of “Why I couldn’t,” we are essentially handing over our power to our circumstances.
Continue Reading: Beyond The Wall of Excuses: Moving Beyond The Language of “Why I Couldn’t”
Love as a Sacrifice to God
When we love people, we are actually showing love toward God’s name, and this changes the stakes. If you are loving a difficult person, you are not doing it because they deserve it; you are doing it because God is worthy of your obedience.
This perspective protects you from the Empty Boat Effect. In psychology, the empty boat refers to the idea that if an empty boat hits yours in the fog, you do not get angry because there is no one to blame, but if a person is in the boat, you feel rage. I would say that Pastor Enoch’s teaching suggests that we should treat every interaction as an empty boat scenario by focusing on our own response to God rather than the perceived driver of the other boat.
If your labor is a sacrifice to God, then the other person’s reaction is secondary. You are performing for an audience of One, and that is God Almighty.
The Promise of Remembrance
The most comforting part of the “Labor of Love” is the guarantee of remembrance. Everything else in this life can be forgotten. Careers end, beauty fades, and human gratitude is notoriously short-lived.
“Every other thing could be forgotten, not your work. Not your labor of love.”
God’s righteousness is tied to His memory. To forget your labor would be, in a sense, an act of unrighteousness, which is impossible for God. When you choose to stay when it is hard, and when you choose to serve those who can not repay you, you are building a ledger in heaven that can never be erased.
Read Also: Consideration: The Purest Form of Love
Read Also: The Contrite Heart: Character as The Foundation of Spiritual Growth
Read Also: The Importance of Shared Fundamental Values and Beliefs in Relationships
Conclusion
Pastor Enoch Boamah’s message is a call to maturity. It is a call to move away from the butterfly phase of faith and relationships and into the labor phase. And it requires:
- Decisiveness: Choosing to stay regardless of reactions.
- Surrender: Giving yourself to the Lord first so your cup is filled from a divine source.
- Endurance: Recognizing that labor is hard, but God is a faithful record-keeper.
True growth happens when we stop looking for the easy path and start embracing the labor that God has set before us. It is in this labor that we find our true purpose, our greatest strength, and the assurance that we are seen by the One who never forgets.
