We live in a world that talks about love constantly and practices it rarely. Love has been reduced to a feeling — something that happens to you, something you fall into and out of. But Scripture describes something completely different. Love, in the biblical sense, is not a feeling. It is an action. And it costs everything.
1. The Foundation of Love
Before we can understand what love does, we have to understand where it comes from. 1 John 4:16 tells us that God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. Love is not a human invention. It is a divine attribute. We do not generate it — we receive it and reflect it.
Philippians 2:3 gives us the posture that makes love possible: do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. That single verse dismantles the entire self-centered framework our culture operates from. You cannot love the way God loves while putting yourself at the center. Love requires humility as its foundation — the willingness to see others as genuinely more important than yourself in a given moment.
2. The Work of Love
Love is not passive. 1 John 3:16-18 makes this unmistakably clear: by this we know love — that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But then John immediately brings it down to earth: if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Love in word only is not love. It is performance. Real love acts.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 warns us about doing impressive things without love. You can speak in tongues, prophesy, understand all mysteries, give everything you own to the poor, even sacrifice your body — and if you do not have love, you gain nothing. It is possible to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons. Love is not the cherry on top of a good life. It is the substance that makes any action worth anything at all.
John 15:12-13 gives us the standard: love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. And Jesus modeled that love in four specific ways that we are called to imitate:
- He stoops. John 13:14 — if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. Love bends down. It does not wait for others to come up to its level.
- He carries burdens. Galatians 6:2 — bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Love does not leave people to struggle alone.
- He builds up with truth. Ephesians 4:15 — speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. Love tells the truth. It does not flatter or enable — it speaks what is true because it wants the other person to flourish.
- He bears, forgives, and absorbs wrong. 1 Peter 4:8 — love covers a multitude of sins. Love absorbs offense. It does not keep a running tab of wrongs. It does not demand satisfaction before extending grace.
3. The Blessing of Love
Here is what most people miss: love is not just costly — it is also the path to the richest life available to a human being.
2 Peter 1:4 and 1 John 4:12-13 tell us that when we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Love is a divine experience. When you love the way God loves, you are not just doing something for another person — you are participating in the nature of God Himself. There is nothing higher than that.
Romans 12:19-21 shows love’s transforming power: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Love aimed at an enemy is not weakness — it is the most powerful force available to a human being. It can break cycles of bitterness and retaliation that nothing else can touch.
And Luke 6:35 gives us the reward: love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. The reward for loving like God is becoming like God — bearing His family resemblance before a watching world.
Love Is a Decision
You will not feel your way into loving difficult people. You will not stumble into the kind of sacrificial, burden-bearing, truth-telling, enemy-blessing love that Scripture describes. It is a decision — made daily, sometimes hourly — to align your actions with what God has said love looks like, regardless of how you feel in the moment.
The good news is that you do not have to generate this love from within yourself. God is love. And if you abide in Him, His love flows through you. That is the foundation. That is where the work of love begins — not in your own effort, but in His endless supply.
If you want to go deeper into what faithful Christian living looks like in practice, explore the Teachings page or reach out directly. I would love to hear from you.