Connecting Life with Faith: Love is Supernatural

Fukuoka Japan

The word "love" gets tossed around a lot in our everyday lives.  We hear it at the end of a phone call with our close ones.  We hear it on TV as two lovers embrace.  We hear it when people talk about their favorite food.  The word gets a lot of use!

And there lies perhaps a lack of reflection on the power of such a word. In the Bible Jesus speaks a lot on the topic of love: from loving our neighbors to loving God and the most shocking of statements "Love your enemy"! So how is that supposed to happen?

Well the more I have discovered about this biblical form of "love" I have found that it is not a natural instinct. While humans have innate desires to care for offspring and ourselves, etc. I could not argue that we naturally "love our enemies"

Love as seen in the Bible is best described as a decision and an action not necessarily a feeling although our feelings definitely play a part. So when Christ says to love your enemy he is not speaking about how you feel towards them, but primarily your actions towards them.

1 Corinthians 13 is a famous passage on the love.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

So wait a minute, can this be applied to our actions to those we would consider enemies? Wow! This is amazing! How can we do this when we see the atrocities around the world?  The answer is a supernatural one, one that Jesus clearly tells us in John 15 "...Abide in My love".  We can't do it alone.  True love is supernatural and it comes from God.  Even the love we share with one another, with our spouses, our children, and ultimately our enemies.  I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit even as I write these words.  Am I abiding in His love?


So do you have any enemies? Chances are we all do in some form or another.  So how do we love them? First abide in Christ, ask Him, and fulfill what he has said and find great reward.


Matthew 5:46
"For if you love those who only love you what reward do you have?"