Love

“Teacher, which [is] the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus said to him, ” ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

This is [the] first and great commandment.

And [the] second [is] like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’- Matthew 22:36-39 NKJV

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor [is] he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,- 1 John 3:10-11 NKJV

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love [his] brother* abides in death. 1 John 3:14 NKJV

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:18 NKJV

And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God [must] love his brother also. 1 John 4:21 NKJV

These are only a few of the many verses in the Bible that express the value that God has put on love. For Christians, love is not an option. Love is not something that we can give as we see fit, since God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. It was that love that was shown to the world that gives Christians the opportunity to have a relationship with God. As the Jews were commanded to love God with all their heart, mind and strength, so are the Christians. It is the love of God that produces all the works in a believers life.

We are also commanded as Christians, to love our neighbor. When Jesus was asked to define who is our neighbor, He choose to use the story of the “good Samaritan”. In this story, we come to find out that Jesus’ definition of neighbor was pretty much everyone, including our enemy.  I dare say that this rails against our nature and it is much more difficult to love a neighbor than to love God. That doesn’t mean I don’t love people, I am only saying that it is not natural to love everyone. The natural response when someone offends you is to withdraw, get defensive or even lash out at times. I believe that this response is purely from the flesh, and we must recognize  it as such. God commands that we should love even when we are offended. Jesus said this:

“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” – Matthew 5:44

A little further in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus explains His logic.

“For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” – Matthew 5:46

For those who don’t know, tax collectors were not well liked in those days (as if the are celebrated today). They were typically Jews who worked for the Romans, taking the Jewish people’s money. So, couple that with some dishonesty and there you have a picture of the tax collector.

Jesus was commanding his followers to strive towards this display of love in their  lives, knowing that God would be glorified. When we see a Christian who lives like this we see God working their life. It becomes an instant testimony to the reality of God, and often stuns nonbelievers. Think of when the five Amish girls ages 6-13 were killed in a hostage situation that they didn’t ask for. They became a testimony to the love of God when they, not only publicly forgave this gunman but reached out to the family of the gunman. They also attended the funeral of the gunman and gave the family gifts to help them heal. In the shadow of this story, most my problems seem silly. Ultimately, the forgiveness that Christ shows us trumps all earthly stories.

In conclusion, when the world looks at Christians, they should desire the love they see. They should see a certain selflessness that happens when we die to self and take up our cross. Only when we do this can we love even those who have hurt us. Know that no one is to esteem himself over another. I suppose sometimes we forget that our righteousness is as filthy rags. Somehow we get the idea that we are special in God’s sight compared to others. We must certainly put that foolish attitude aside and love all people simply because that’s what God commands us to do, and that’s what God did through Jesus.