Love Is Not An Option

In listening to an apostle yesterday, he made a statement for which I totally agree, he said that love is not an option. This is significant because a lot of times, particularly in the church, people tend to think that love is a choice; that I can either choose to love or choose not to love. This is incorrect. Love is not a choice, it's a commandment. God commands us to love. Therefore, love is not an option.

One of the reasons I believe this is a challenge for many believers is because we still associate love with a feeling. Love is not a feeling, it is a spirit and an attitudinal disposition that one intentionally adopts in their interaction with others. You don't have to "like" someone in order to love them. That's why Jesus exhorts us to love our enemies (Matthew 5). There aren't too many of your enemies that you're going to like, but God still commands us to love them.

Love is not about sentimentality. Love is understanding, reaching and securing. When you love someone, you take the time to understand where they are coming from. Then you attempt to reach them where they are, not where you think they ought to be. And then you secure them by addressing their needs and concerns. The perfect example of this is John 3:16:

For God so loved the world (He understood we were lost sinners) that He gave His only begotten Son (He reached us where we were); that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life (He secured us with Salvation and Eternal Life).

May we all continue to grow in grace, and understand that, as it relates to the Divine Will of God for our lives, love is not an option.