One of the toughest realities we face about love is that sometimes love is hard—but we still have to choose it. Jesus challenges the excuses we use to limit love and he pushes us beyond what’s comfortable, familiar, or convenient. He makes it clear that real love doesn’t stop at our comfort zones, our preferences, or our prejudices—it crosses the road, gets involved, and pays the cost. Jesus Himself models this kind of love by loving the unlovely, the enemy, and even the people we’ve started to treat as invisible. The call is simple but not easy: even when love is hard, I must choose to love—and when we lean in, God has a way of filling us with a love we didn’t know we had and letting His love flow through us to others.

Whether we realize it or not, when we love those on the margins, we are loving Jesus. In Matthew 25, Jesus reminds us that he intentionally identifies Himself the “least of these” and He tells us plainly, “Whatever you did for one of them, you did for Me.” If we are followers of Jesus, we must move beyond comfortable, easy love and begin loving the people right in front of us—especially those our world overlooks or pushes aside. Love is more than a feeling… and one of the clearest ways we show it is by stepping into the margins with the love of Jesus.

Love is more than a feeling—it is a choice to live like Jesus. Scripture shows us that biblical love is not driven by emotion or convenience, but by a deliberate decision to reflect the character of Christ in the way we live, act, and respond. When we choose to love as Jesus loves, that choice reshapes our daily lives, forming a way of life that honors God in everything we do. And as love becomes our pattern, it becomes a visible signpost that points others to Jesus. Real love changes us, shapes our character, and reveals our faith to the world. When we choose to live like Jesus, love becomes the force God uses to transform us—and through us, our world.