1 John 4:19-20 / English Standard Version: "We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen"
God's greatest commandments are to love him and to love one another. Loving him may come easy; after all, he is patient and loving himself. But the second part of his command can be difficult because it means loving intrusive neighbors at the backyard barbeque, offensive cousins at Christmas dinner, rude cashiers at the grocery store check-out and insufferable guests who have stayed one night too many in the guestroom.
Loving one another is only possible when we love like him. When we love out of our humanity, sin gets in the way Obeying the command to love begins with his love. When we realize how great his love is for us - how undeserved, unending, and unconditional - we are humbled because we didn't earn it. But he gives it anyway, freely and abundantly, and this spurs us on to love others.
We represent Jesus Christ to the world through love, and we love to the degree that we understand his love for us. If we know how high and wide and deep and long his love is for us, then we have no choice but to pour out that love on others. The intrusive becomes welcome, the offensive becomes peaceful, rudeness gives way to grace, and the insufferable is overshadowed by the cross and all that Jesus suffered there. He did it for all of us; he did it for love.
How can you show love to the unlovely?
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