Most of us have the capacity for human, or natural, love (with a little 'l'). That is, we care enough about others to wish them well and to do something to help secure their wellbeing. This kind of love is typically associated with, and motivated by, feelings. And there are wide ranges of feelings that can motivate us to this kind of love, such as: passion, fondness and affection; compassion, empathy and sympathy; trust, gratitude and loyalty; self-interest, self-worth and selfishness. We love ourselves, usually motivated by self-interest, self-worth or selfishness. Most of us love our families and our friends, and perhaps our larger circle of acquaintances and fellow citizens (at least some of them), and perhaps even all mankind (at least in theory), usually on a sliding scale from greater to lesser as we go down the list from ourselves. Somewhere along the scale we say we love God.

So how is Love-with-a-capital-'L' different from love-with-a-little-'l'? The scriptures teach us that God is Love. This means that His divine personality is defined wholly by a quality of character that translates into His total commitment to our wellbeing. For example, everything God tells us to do is good for us. Everything God tells us not to do, if we do it, is bad for us. God's Love is totally outward focused. It doesn't start with Him loving himself and working outward to His creation or His creatures (you and me) to greater or lesser degrees. God is Love. That's what that means.

Describing God-Love is like trying to describe color, a vista or a sunrise to someone blind from birth. Yet some of us understand this God-Love better than others. Some of us have begun to experience it, to a lesser or greater degree, like a man blind from birth beginning to gain his sight. This is an important part of what we call the Christian experience – when we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior (and not just go through the motions, as some do), we begin to experience and understand something of this God-Love. That is, when we first realize that God's forgiveness is a gift, offered by Him despite who we are or the hurt we cause Him, we begin a process whereby we start to see, with spiritual eyes blinded from birth, God-Love.

And we begin to Love God back when we keep His commandments. How do we know we Love God? By keeping His commandments (I John 5: 1 – 3). If we are at least trying to keep His commandments (it's hard), we can know that we Love God (with a capital 'L'). If we are not trying to keep His commandments, we do not Love God (His definition, not mine). It has nothing to do with feelings, but with doing. At least, it has nothing to do with feelings at first.

One of His commandments (one of the most important) is that we are to Love (with a capital ‘L’) others as ourselves. Not some others, and not sometime, and not to a lesser degree than we love ourselves. We are to Love all others, and at all times, and to the same degree as we love ourselves.

In doing this, most of us probably have to start small (with baby steps), resisting the urge to get angry at the driver who cuts in front of us in traffic, but instead sincerely praying for his or her safety.

Or how about the next time someone spreads malicious gossip about you at work? Try praying for them, and maybe the next time you take something special into work (like cookies or candy) make a point to see that they especially get some. And if you're not in the habit of taking good things to work for the enjoyment of your coworkers, maybe you should start doing that, too, on occasion.

Try it sometime, and then tell me you can feel the same aggravation you felt towards that other driver or coworker when first they cut you off or spread rumors about you. I bet you can't. And that's just the beginning of truly Loving God and others, and of experiencing, practicing, and eventually becoming, God-Love.

Copyright James K. Bowling