You Have to Love Others

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. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

(1 John 4:20-21)

Before I was saved, the list of people I loved was pretty short, and included mostly the people in my family. However, my hate list was very long indeed. The ones who wronged me in some way were those I reserved my deepest scorn for. There was, for example, Diane C. who made fun of me on the playground when I was eight. David O. who punched me at the bowling alley when I was twelve. I can’t forget Steve T. a bully who stuffed me in a hall locker at school when I was fourteen. This is a minuscule part of the list, but you can see how I could hold a grudge.

Of course, for the majority of people, I was just indifferent, which is really more of a passive-aggressive hate than anything else. After Jesus came into my life, I had to rethink everything about how I felt about other people. One of the gifts of the Spirit for me was love. It didn’t happen all of a sudden, it took a little while. I realized, if I couldn’t love the people I encounter, even a complete stranger, what did that say about me? I can tell you, it was a watershed moment.

I do love God. I want others to know that, so I will do my very best, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to never act in a way that makes anyone think I hate someone else. I will also do my best to purge my heart of any thoughts of hating another person, even an enemy. If I want God to love me, and I very much want that, I must not only show his love to others, I must hold that love for them in my heart. I love everyone equally. I want everyone to know why!

Today’s society will tell you that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you hate them. Nothing could be further from the truth. If I truly believe in what the Bible says, and I see someone doing something the Bible says will lead them to hell, shouldn’t I warn them. So long as my warning is given in a loving way, isn’t me cautioning them an act of love? The act of hate comes when I say nothing, and they end up in hell.

Heavenly Father, you are the author of love. It’s you we look to for how we’re supposed to treat each other. Before we turn our lives and hearts to you, we think we know what love is. We think it’s about loving only those closest to us, but in reality, that’s only familial love, a small part of the spectrum of your love. You want to have that familial love, but also to have brotherly love, even for those we don’t necessarily like very much. Remind us that we cannot claim to know you and what your love is, and then deny it to others. Even though we cannot see you, Lord, we can feel your grace and mercy in our daily lives. Thank you, Father, for filling our hearts with your love. You are willing to give us so much love that it burst forth from us to everyone we meet. Now we can know if we really love you, by how much we love others. We pray this through Jesus Christ our King. Amen!