QUESTION: When Jesus tells us to love others, is He talking about a feeling?
ANSWER: Not primarily.
The world often defines love as an emotion—affection, attraction, warmth, approval, or how another person makes us feel. But when Jesus speaks about love, He takes us much deeper.
Biblical love is demonstrated.
It moves.
It gives.
It serves.
It forgives.
It sacrifices.
It does good—even when doing good is difficult.
That becomes unmistakable when Jesus gives one of His hardest commands:
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you…”
— Matthew 5:44
Think carefully about what Jesus is commanding.
How could He command you to feel affection for someone who hates you?
Someone may have betrayed you. Lied about you. Humiliated you. Abandoned you. Hurt your family. Tried to destroy your reputation. You cannot simply flip an emotional switch and suddenly feel warmth toward that person.
Jesus gives us the answer inside the command itself.
Love them. Bless them. Do good to them. Pray for them.
Those are actions.
Jesus is teaching us that godly love reaches beyond emotion.
QUESTION: Does loving my enemy mean approving of what they did?
No.
This is one of the greatest misunderstandings about Christian love.
Love does not require calling evil good.
Jesus loved sinners, yet He never pretended sin was acceptable. Biblical love can confront wrongdoing, establish boundaries, demand truth, and refuse to participate in evil.
You can love someone and still tell them:
“What you did was wrong.”
You can forgive someone without trusting them immediately.
You can pray for someone without allowing them back into a position where they can continue hurting you.
You can desire someone’s salvation while refusing to participate in their destructive behavior.
Love does not eliminate truth.
Paul tells us that love:
“Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:6
Real love and truth belong together.
QUESTION: Why would Jesus command us to love our enemies?
Because loving people who love us is easy.
Jesus said:
“For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?”
— Matthew 5:46
Almost anyone can love someone who treats them well.
You love me.
I love you.
You respect me.
I respect you.
You help me.
I help you.
There is nothing particularly extraordinary about that.
But Jesus asks:
What happens when the other person gives you nothing in return?
What happens when kindness is answered with cruelty?
What happens when forgiveness is undeserved?
What happens when someone hates you?
That is where Christian love becomes different.
Jesus is essentially saying:
Do not allow another person’s hatred to determine the condition of your heart.
If they hate you and you respond with hatred, they have changed you.
If they become cruel and you become cruel, their darkness has entered you.
If they seek revenge and you become consumed with revenge, they are now controlling something inside you.
Christ calls us to something higher.
“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
— Romans 12:21
QUESTION: What does charity have to do with love?
Everything.
The King James Version frequently uses the word “charity” where many modern translations use “love.”
That word beautifully communicates something we often forget:
Love gives.
First Corinthians 13 is sometimes called the great chapter on love, but in the King James Version Paul repeatedly uses charity:
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind…”
— 1 Corinthians 13:4
Notice what follows.
Charity is patient.
Charity is kind.
Charity does not envy.
Charity does not boast.
Charity is not selfish.
Charity is not easily provoked.
Charity does not rejoice in wrongdoing.
Charity rejoices in truth.
Charity bears.
Charity believes.
Charity hopes.
Charity endures.
These aren’t merely emotions.
They are ways of behaving.
That is why biblical love can exist even during moments when loving feelings are difficult.
QUESTION: Did Jesus demonstrate this kind of love Himself?
Look at the cross.
That is the answer.
Jesus did not merely preach:
“Love your enemies.”
He demonstrated it.
While being crucified, Jesus said:
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
— Luke 23:34
Think about that scene.
He had been mocked.
Beaten.
Spit upon.
Falsely accused.
Humiliated.
Nailed to a cross.
And what came from His mouth?
Not revenge.
Not hatred.
Prayer.
The command to love your enemies came from Someone who would demonstrate exactly what He meant.
QUESTION: How does love connect with helping people in need?
The Bible makes the connection extremely direct.
John writes:
“But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”
— 1 John 3:17
Then comes the answer:
“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
— 1 John 3:18
There it is.
Not merely in words.
In deed.
You can tell a hungry person you love them.
But can you feed them?
You can tell someone suffering that you care.
But will you sit beside them?
You can tell someone you will pray for them.
And you should pray.
But if God has placed the ability in your hands to help them, are you willing to move?
James gives a similar warning:
“If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled… what doth it profit?”
— James 2:15–16
Christian love cannot live only in our mouths.
Eventually, love must become action.
QUESTION: What did Jesus mean by “Love thy neighbour as thyself”?
Jesus was asked which commandment was greatest.
He answered first:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
— Matthew 22:37
Then:
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
— Matthew 22:39
Jesus connected our relationship with God to our treatment of other people.
That means Christianity cannot simply be:
I attend worship.
I read my Bible.
I pray.
I believe in God.
Those things matter tremendously.
But if I worship God on Sunday and treat people terribly on Monday, something is wrong.
John makes the point even harder:
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
— 1 John 4:8
How we treat people says something about what is happening inside us.
QUESTION: Who exactly is my neighbor?
Someone asked Jesus essentially that same question.
Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25–37.
A man had been beaten, robbed, and left half dead.
A priest saw him and passed by.
A Levite saw him and passed by.
Then came a Samaritan.
The Samaritan stopped.
He treated the man’s wounds.
He placed him on his own animal.
He brought him somewhere safe.
He cared for him.
He paid for his lodging.
Then Jesus asked which person had been the injured man’s neighbor.
The answer was the one who showed mercy.
Jesus then said:
“Go, and do thou likewise.”
— Luke 10:37
Notice again:
Go.
Do.
Christian love moves.
QUESTION: Does loving someone mean they deserve my love?
If love depended entirely upon deserving it, Christianity would collapse.
Because none of us deserved the cross.
Paul writes:
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
— Romans 5:8
God did not wait until humanity became worthy before demonstrating His love.
He acted while we were sinners.
That does not mean sin did not matter.
It means God’s love was greater than our worthiness.
And now Christians are commanded to carry that same principle into the world.
QUESTION: So what does Christian love actually look like?
Sometimes love looks like giving someone food.
Sometimes it looks like visiting someone who is alone.
Sometimes it looks like forgiving someone who never apologized.
Sometimes it means telling someone a truth they don’t want to hear.
Sometimes it means giving money anonymously because someone desperately needs help.
Sometimes it means sitting beside a hospital bed.
Sometimes it means calling someone everyone else forgot.
Sometimes it means praying for the person who hurt you.
Sometimes it means refusing revenge when revenge would feel good.
Sometimes it means setting a boundary while refusing to hate the person on the other side of it.
And sometimes love costs you something.
Your time.
Your pride.
Your money.
Your comfort.
Your convenience.
Your forgiveness.
Your sacrifice.
Because if love never costs us anything, we should occasionally ask ourselves:
Is it the kind of love Jesus was talking about?
FINAL THOUGHT
Jesus did not command us simply to feel love.
He commanded us to live it.
The world says:
Love those who love you.
Jesus says:
Love your enemies.
The world says:
Get even.
Jesus says:
Pray for them.
The world says:
Take care of yourself first.
Jesus shows us:
Serve others.
The world says:
Tell people you care.
Scripture says:
Show them.
Love is not weakness.
Love is not pretending evil never happened.
Love is not allowing people to continually abuse you.
And love is certainly not merely an emotion.
Biblical love is a decision that becomes an action.
Jesus didn’t just tell humanity that He loved us.
He went to the cross and proved it.
So perhaps the question isn’t simply:
“Do I love people?”
The harder question is:
“If nobody could hear what I say, would they still know I love them by what I do?”
“Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
— 1 John 3:18
RESTORED LIFE AFTER