If you read any of the words of Jesus, you learn that love is kind of a big deal for him. It should be one of the core tenets of anyone who desires to be a disciple of the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately, when we look around, we too often see that the people who are shouting about God the most, are also showing the least love. Love for your brother or sister. Love for your neighbor. Love for strangers. Even love for your enemy.
We don’t like this message. It’s hard to live out and it asks me to do something that I never want to do. Love my enemy? If I could love them, they wouldn’t be my enemy! But that right there is why it is so important. God has given us a calling to transcend our pettiness. There is no us and them in heaven. Every human being was made in the image of God. And we must embrace that identity even when we are surrounded by people who do not.
We understand that we are the spiritual daughters and sons of the creator of the universe. So, we need to act like it. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Paul says this, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
We can do great things and have great faith, but if we do it for personal gain, worldly acclaim, or anything that is not love we have gained nothing.
Loving other people is hard, and you were called to do hard things