Love is not about feelings, but about deciding with our wills.

C. S. Lewis says it this way: “Love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people” (Mere Christianity 115).

And that’s why Jesus says to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Because we naturally love ourselves. Whether we have warm fuzzies about ourselves is questionable, but we automatically look out for our own best interest no matter the situation or how warped our understanding of that is.

Love is a decision of the will to act in love toward others as we naturally act toward ourselves.

So, we must love our neighbors as ourselves with a firm decision of the will.