Love Is Not Natural

Love must be supernatural.

I’m no theologian, and I’m not trying to make a revolutionary statement. I’ve kind of written about this before, but I thought this was a fun new way to make sense of this.

Resources

Everyone has to budget. If you haven’t learned already, you will learn that money, in fact, does not grow on trees. Money is a resource that is limited.

Since you know money is limited, you have to make decisions on what is worth your money. To get the most out of your money, you shop for deals or look for coupons. You only let yourself splurge every once in a while. You have to practice discipline and self-control.

Oftentimes, the wise thing to do is count the cost. We are commanded to be good stewards of our resources, as technically it is God who owns all. 

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who live in it.

Energy is also a resource that is limited.

Lately, I have been fixated on my health. It has become my habit to determine my next step based on my physical condition. I’m constantly considering which activities I can do based on how I’m feeling or which activities I should do in order to feel better. I’ll plan meals and calculate macros to see where I could be lacking and prepare for the future. I’ll plan out my exercise in hopes of improving my energy levels.

Stewardship of Love

However, I find myself also factoring in my capacity and capability to love. I’m tempted to treat love like energy or money. Love is not a limited resource.

Imagine if you got an unlimited credit card. Out of habit, sales and deals may still grab your attention at first. When you go shopping, you may still try to decide between which color shirt to buy. However, as time goes on, you begin to get used to having an unlimited supply of funds. You will get to a point where you never notice a sale or a deal. You go from picking a shirt to buying all the colors. You could get so used to spending without restraint that you forget what a price tag looks like. You learn to spend money without a second thought.

In the same way, being saved by God’s love is like being handed an unlimited credit card.

1 John 4:7-21

Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.

God's Innate Love

God’s natural tendency to love. He cannot act outside of His loving character. Everything He does comes from love. Love is His essence. I love how Dane Ortland explains God’s love in Gentle and Lowly with Exodus 20:5-6: while God’s wrath can last to the third or fourth generation, God’s steadfast love lasts a thousand generations. This proves how much God would rather show us love and mercy instead of His just wrath!

Exodus 20:5-6

You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Love is a part of God’s essence. His love is a supernatural wonder to us, as we live in a finite world. God’s love does not have physical restraints. His love is unconditional and eternal.

We have God's Love

You (and I) have to stop treating love like limited energy because you have an unlimited source. God’s love is limitless, so why am I trying to pick and choose where to spend it?

What limits are you putting to love? What are the boundaries you have?

The prices you put on love slowly fade in the distance as you grow closer to God.

To emphasize this point again: love because of God’s love is supernatural. It’s boundless.

“We love because God first loved us.” Literally. We can love intensely and immensely because God has loved us. We have been given access to Him, the best source of love.

This is the greatest love: to lay down one’s life for one’s friend (John 15:13). God has done this for us. Because God has loved us, we can love others. Because Jesus has laid down His life for us, we can put away our hindrances to love. Because God has freed us from our sin out of His love, we are free to love in spite of our sin.

Investment

To be a good steward of our earthly resources from God, like money, energy, and time, we must remember we are sojourners, and everything belongs to God. You can make bad investments with what you “own.” With these things, discipline looks like living shrewdly, generously, and humbly. 

To be a good steward of our heavenly gifts, like love or mercy, we must practice indulgence.

There is no place where showing God’s love is a bad investment. Your effort to love is never a waste.

The closer we are to God, the closer we are to living like Jesus. The sanctification process expands our capacity to love. We have the gift of God’s love that we must share.

To count the cost of our heavenly resources is knowing what happens to the souls who just needed someone to show them the love of Jesus. When you don’t have the chance to love a lost person, you have the chance to love a Christ follower who will. Seize every opportunity to love.

Lasting Thoughts

What is stopping you from loving God and loving others like God loves you? Time, dignity, fear, laziness, or pride?

What boundaries do you need to let go of to express this True Love that has been freely given to you?

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

When I wrote this on Wednesday, I wasn't even thinking about what today was going to be. How cool is God that He spoke to (and convicted!) me about His love right before this day of love.

Happy Valentine's Day! God loves you!