Love them too…
By: Katie Harris, GCCBA Missions & Ministry Team Leader
John 13:34
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
1 John 4:7
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
As Christians we are supposed to love because God loves us. Many times in the Bible we are commanded to love others because we are given love from God. Scripture even tells us that the second greatest commandment is to love others. Think about that, what would the world look like if you lived your life as if the second greatest thing you did was to love others like yourself. I believe if we all lived like this the world would be a better place. But the thought I want to focus on today is who should we love? The scripture says simply to love one another. We don’t see any “buts” or caveats that qualify who we should love. And this is because we are to love everyone. Regardless of who they are, what they say, or what they have done.
I want to say “but God you mean we are to love people who hurt us and hurt our family? You want us to love murderers, people who steal from us, and people who speak out against you?” I will be honest and say I struggle to love some people. I look at the faces of people who have hurt children or people like Hitler who killed 1,000’s of people and yet God is asking me to love them? In the past few months if you have watched the news or been on social media there is not a lot of love being spread around. People are disagreeing with others and are not afraid to say it out loud. Recently God has spoken to my heart and told me to love them too. I am to love those who disagree with me, love those who live differently than me, love those who society looks down upon. Love them, and them, and them, and them too……. How do people know you are a Christian, by your love.
Prayer:
Lord, We confess today that so many times we choose to love those who are like us and those who love us. But today we ask that you help us love those that disagree with us, that are different than us, and those that others see as unlovable. We want to love them, them, them, and them too. Help us to love because you first loved us. In your name we pray, Amen.