Almost from the beginning of my spiritual journey, I’ve believed that love is an action that begins with the decision to act. Sometimes the decision is initially accompanied by loving feelings, but probably more times this isn’t the case. That view hasn’t changed. The basis for this belief is twofold: First, my conversion. Secondly, God commands us to love.

I didn’t love God, in terms of love defined as feelings, when I gave myself to Him. I hadn’t been around Him long enough for that to happen. I came to Him because of the little that I heard about Him—that He offered me hope for a changed life away from darkness. It was his character revealed in His word, in the life of Jesus, and the testimony of others that provided that hope.

I admired what God stood for. I believed His ways were truth. I desired the offer of a clean life, so I decided I wanted to experience that. In order to do that, I knew I had to get to God better.

As I got to know more about God, I found it strange that He commanded me to love Him with all my heart, soul, strength and mind. He also commanded that I should love others. To me, that meant experiencing intimate feelings for Him and others.

How, I asked, do you make yourself feel love? Pondering that led me to realize what was already happening in my relationship with the Lord. Because I was spending time with Him, intimate feelings were present; especially a heart-felt appreciation for the sacrifice made at the cross.

In other words, emotionalism did not create my love for God. It was a decision that I could love Him; especially His ways. And that decision, which led to interaction, turned out to be love. Intimate emotions for God spiritually and naturally developed.

I hope I’m making sense here. Perhaps this will help clarify. The process was akin to what American Christian pastor and author A. W. Tozer said: “Flowers and bird-songs do not make spring; but when spring comes, they come with it.”

Having become more familiar with God’s character, motives and operations, I’ve come to know that if He commands us to love, it is only because He has given us the capacity to decide to act lovingly in another’s life, including His own. It’s a capacity that is developed by the power of His grace through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

This is illustrated in the lives of most Christians I know. They, like me, have encountered some rather unlovable people; people we don’t want to be around and who don’t want us around them. Yet, we are commanded to love them, even if they are our sworn enemies.

Now, there are some Christians who can immediately feel love for those who hate them. However, these tend to be people who have a natural loving disposition. Certainly they can embrace God’s command to love – still with the help of the Spirit – more readily than most.

On the other hand, I, like most Christians I know, can love the unlovable only with the help of the Spirit. We can’t do it on our own. We don’t feel positive towards those people. But we know that God’s grace, that brings salvation before all people, falls on the lovable and unlovable. We know that He loves them and wants them to know it through us.

So God’s command to love our enemies must mean we’re to go into action, no matter whether we feel or don’t feel loving. In order to do that, a decision has to be made in regards to the trustworthiness of God’s wisdom. If we love God’s wisdom, then we should decide to act accordingly, knowing that His power is available to draw upon.

Though we might not initially feel loving, if we repeatedly, habitually decide to perform loving acts in the lives of the unlovable, we can begin to, and will feel God’s compassionate agape love in our actions.

So I maintain that loving God, or anyone else that He commands us to love, is a love that begins with a decision to go into action. We must decide to let our actions be a surrendering to the living examples and guiding principles of love that are presented in Scripture, and to the thoughts, motives and feelings from the life of Jesus within.