Loving others is hard. Do hard things.
As I look at my life, I believe I am probably one of the most unlovely people I know. I start projects and sometimes don’t finish them. My intentions are good, but my execution is occasionally slow. Frequently in conversations, I am distracted and have trouble focusing, which leads people to believe that I don’t care about them. Like most people, I am selfish at times and only care about myself. The longer I look at myself in the mirror, I see someone difficult to love. Mirrors don’t lie.
That is no excuse for me, but it is a statement of truth. People, in general, are hard to love. So what does that mean? How should we approach each other in the current climate within our country today? People have different ideas and thoughts about political issues, social issues, biblical issues, and family issues. Do these differences give us the option not to love them and to distance ourselves from them in a way that throws them away and considers them expendable? That couldn’t be true. Let’s look at that for a few minutes.
Love others is a command
Jesus gave us a command that should change the way we look at others. There are no options or alternatives. It is a command to love one another with a selfless kind of love. What does that mean? It means that we should love because Jesus commanded us to love. When I was growing up in the house, my parents often told me to take out the trash. It wasn’t a question, but a command. It wasn’t, “Hey Tommy, do you think you could take out the trash when you feel like it sometime over the next week or two?” That would be crazy, right?
I took out the trash because it was a command. It was my job, and I did it because of the expectation. Lest you think I was perfect, my parents often would tell me several times before I would get up from watching “Flipper” and “Gilligan’s Island” to take out the trash. Anyone remember “Flipper” and “Gilligan’s Island?”
It all boils down to the command from Jesus. We must love one another regardless of whether the other person loves you.
Loving others is difficult. Do difficult things.
Love others as Jesus loves you
Jesus then tells us how we should love others. We should love others as Jesus loves us. That is another hard thing. Jesus loves us unconditionally. His love for us is not dependent on our response to Him. Jesus’ love for us is a self-sacrificing, life-giving, and infinite kind of love. Can we express that same kind of love to others who decide to support a different political candidate than we do? I know it isn’t easy.
We live in a world of confusion and division. Every four to six years, people take up sides and express their political views, intentionally defining others in a very condescending way. That is not the way Jesus loves us. Remember, Jesus says to love as He loves. No option.
Is it possible for you to sit next to someone at church who decides to vote for a different candidate than your selection? Love means not rubbing things in the faces of others. And by the way, Facebook is a terrible vehicle for communicating “shade” towards others and making your point. I understand expressing your political views might be vitally important to you. I also understand from reading John 13:34 that Jesus would most likely never use Facebook or other social media platforms to hurt others by communicating His opinion on so many divisive matters in society. Why? Because it is not a loving thing to do. When is the last time you used social media to express your opinion about something with the intention of securing a “gotcha” moment with others who disagree with you?
Loving others is difficult. Do difficult things.
Others will identify you by your love for others
Finally, Jesus tells us that others will know us by the love we have for one another. When others look at us and see our love transcends social and political issues, it is an amazing display of our real character. When is the last time you embraced someone who thinks differently than you do about social or political issues? I’m guessing not often.
Here is the truth. What do people see when they look at us? Do they see us display unloving attitudes towards others? Jesus says this shows that you are not truly following Jesus. Think about it. Jesus wants us to know this is an essential part of being Jesus’ disciple. If you are truly following Jesus, you love as Jesus loved, and that love reveals a true disciple.
Are you truly following Jesus?
Loving others is difficult. Do difficult things.
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