Jesus said unto 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 22:37-39 

…He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Matthew 5:45

“O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.“ Micah 6:8

From the Mind of First Love.

We are all just one family.
One family living variations of one life.
We are just one family bound together.
A dream coming from just one mind.

We must not forget we are all one heart.
One heart together in God’s love.
As one heart we beat together,
With the heartbeat from above.

 Remember we are alive in one another;
We will exist together or we won’t exist.
For, we are extensions of one another,
As a kiss is an extension of the lips.

Never forget we sink or swim together.
We are bound by each other’s fate.
God joined us one to the other
So there would be no room for hate.

Because we are alive together
Together we must agree on how we live.
Like our creator, we are made to love.
And in that love, made to forgive.

We were created to be His family,
Our hearts to beat with His heart above.
We are separate parts of one another
Yet still one creation of First Love.
Linda Troxell, © November 13, 2020

 

 

Is there someone in your life that you have a hard time getting along with? I don’t mean just intermittent disagreements or occasional shake-your-head moments. I mean someone who lives their life in a way so contrary to your understanding of the way God asks us to live, you wonder why they haven’t yet been struck by lightning. 

Or maybe it isn’t someone in your life per se, but various people; some of whom you interact with randomly, others perhaps more regularly. People who are generally so unpleasant, rude, and sometimes downright insulting that you struggle to keep your eyes and your mind on God’s commands. Your flesh screams to engage with them tit for tat, while your spirit whispers that you must love them as you love yourself. 

No matter how the situation plays out for each of us personally, we all have difficulty loving others at some time. I think many of us, after having a difficult interaction with someone we find distasteful, have found ourselves wondering if anyone is capable of living up to God’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves? I know I sure have.  Jesus said unto 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 22:37-39 

After all, we struggle sometimes to get along with our own family members, our mothers, our spouses, and our children, who we do love. And, If we’re honest, there are moments, for example after a serious argument, when we wonder, momentarily, if we really love them. So how can we be expected to love someone who we don’t even like? Sometimes I’m not sure it’s possible.

To answer that question, we must consider several things. Let’s tackle the simplest one first. The short answer is yes; yes we can love people we don’t like. How do I know? Because God asks us to and He wouldn’t ask us to do something we aren’t capable of doing.  But I think that if we look closer we will find that our actual question is not so much if we can love these people we find so distasteful, but how we can love them. Getting to that answer is a little more complicated.

We can start by noticing that the commandment telling us to love our neighbor is connected to another commandment; it does not stand on its own. Nor is it the first of the pair. If we pay attention we will see that Jesus told us the first and great commandment is to love God. The second He said is like the first, to Love your neighbor as yourself. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:38-39

The order of the commandments is not random. It was written in that order for a reason. To convey that loving our neighbors as ourselves is predicated on loving the Lord our God with all of our hearts minds and souls. So, when we find ourselves wondering how we can love this person we find so distasteful, it might be helpful to back up and start by asking ourselves if we actually love God the way the  commandment tells us to. If we can truthfully answer yes to that question, it should make it easier to love those who God loves.   

Our willingness to love all of God’s children is a function of our love for God Himself. It would be all but impossible to become willing to love someone we find offensive if we did not love God sufficiently. For, it is our love for God that allows us to view the love we give to those we find difficult as an act of worship. That explains why we can be willing to love those we find distasteful, but we haven’t even touched on how to love them.

I imagine many of you are probably still wondering how you can feel love for someone whom you presently feel only distaste. And, snuggled right there in the middle of that question is the fallacy about love that keeps us believing it’s impossible to love someone we dislike or with whom we disagree, or who voted for the other guy, or has a different color of skin, and on and. That fallacy is that love is a feeling.

Once we understand that love is not a feeling but a decision, an attitude, and behavior, we can begin to understand how we can love someone we dislike, or someone we find distasteful. Now, that’s not to say that we don’t have a warm, fuzzy, and very sentimental emotional state that we have labeled love. We do. That’s the love we feel toward our mothers, spouses, or children. That is not the love God is asking us to extend to one another. It is Godly love He is asking us to give.

 Godly love begins when we become fully aware that we are all made in the image of God. That awareness can, if we allow it, lead to a decision to look for and find the image of God in every person with whom we interact. That decision, if it is nurtured, will, over time, create an attitude of inclusiveness leading to behavior that treats God’s children, every one of them, with kindness, gentleness, and respect.

I wonder what would happen if everyone who believes in God the Father and God the Sons, would begin to understand that we are literally in this together, dependant on one another? We are each of us part of the body of Christ. We need to work together to do the bidding of our Father.

I wonder what would happen if all of God’s children started today to meditate on the full meaning of being made in the image of God?  I wonder what would happen if we all, starting today, chose to be fully aware that because we are all made in the image of God, we too are all image bearers of our Father in heaven? I wonder what would happen if we all allowed that awareness to flow through us?

I wonder what would happen if we all made the decision to see the image of God in the face of every person with whom we interacted every day; not just on the good days but every day?  Would that decision, if we nurtured it, create an attitude of inclusiveness? Would it lead to behavior that treats the Children of God, every one, with kindness, gentleness, and respect? Remember He made us all! It’s a big job. Can we do it?  Will you try?

 If we need a framework for what this love is or how to extend it to our brothers and sisters, we can turn to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and read the definition known by hundreds of thousands of Christians, as well as non-Christians, around the world. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.”   1 Corinthians 13:4-7. 

It is a definition easy to understand. In 4 verses it lists 8 attributes of love, it tells us what love is, what love is not, what love believes, and how it behaves. What it does not tell us is how love feels. Because love is something we do, something we think, and a decision we make and it is a commitment. And when we get it right we are just a little closer to living the way Jesus lived.

It doesn’t matter what anyone else does, we are called to imitate the way Jesus lived as closely as we can. And to allow God to change us day by day to become more like Jesus. Our lives should be ruled by love alone. We are called to love our enemies, to pray for those who treat us unfairly and bless those who curse us, that we may be sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. Jesus reminds us that God’s love is there for anyone who will receive it. For, He says this of our Father…He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:45   

It is not complicated to please our God. He does not require a lot of us. No more are the 613 laws to remember and follow; no more do we have to perform elaborate rituals to repent of our sin. When we boil it all down to its essence, there are only a few things that God has continually asked of us. He wants us to love one another and treat one another with grace, mercy, and compassion as He treats us. His requirements are stated so simply in Micah 6. “O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.“ Micah 6:8

 

Let’s Pray

Father, sometimes we make it so complicated to understand what you want from us. When in reality it is so simple. That is not to say it isn’t difficult because if that were the case, your son would not have had to die for our sins.  But why, Lord, why is it so difficult for us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly beside you? Why is it that for millennia we have been unable to grasp the exquisite simplicity of “Do unto others what you would have done to you.’? Lord, please forgive us for our inability to just bask in the glow of your love. Help us Lord to get beyond the fear, beyond the envy, and beyond the need to compare what we have with what others have. It seems we are forever like little children competing for daddy’s love. Help us, Lord, to recognize you have enough love for all of us. Help us to stop comparing and trust that you will give to each of us exactly what we need. And to understand it will not be the same because even though we are equal in your eyes and in your heart, our needs are not the same. Help us, Lord, to trust that you know each of us so intimately that you know what we need even before we do, and even when we never do. Help us to trust that you would love to give us all of your gifts if we would only relax and accept them. Thank you, Lord, for your patience. Thank you for guiding us and helping us to understand that in your house there are many mansions, (John 14:2 KJV) there is room for all of us and there is joy and peace and love waiting for us. All we need do is pick up our key and then follow your son from this place of misery home to your Kingdom. Help us, God, to know He has already defeated death and with it the enemy. Help us to understand, Lord, there is nothing left to fear.

We ask this in the holy name of your Son, Christ, Jesus. 

 

Points to Ponder 
Or
Perhaps to put Pen to Paper

 

It has been difficult for many Christians to live by the Law Jesus tells us about in Matthew 22, “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself” Have you had struggles in this area? If you have, write a paragraph about your struggle.

If you have had struggles, take a few minutes to think about your struggle throughout the years. Can you see any pattern in people with whom you’ve struggled? Write something about that.

If you haven’t had struggles with loving your neighbor take more time to consider or perhaps talk to a trusted friend. It’s hard to think that anyone has not struggled with this at very difficult task. I’m pretty sure Jesus was the only one who didn’t struggle in this area.

 

Before you read this, were you aware that Godly love is not a feeling?
If you weren’t, how does knowing it impact any struggles you’ve had in this area?