Love As I Have Loved You……

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."......Jesus (John 13:34-35)

Jesus tells us in to love one another as He has loved us. How much do you show love to those around you? How much do you care about those that are not very kind to you? What sacrifices are you making to help those around you? While all of the kindness, goodness, and joy are wonderful fruits of the Spirit, they are still not as great as love.

Having love like Jesus means growing a love for everyone. That is not always the simplest thing to do. People say mean things. They hurt us, and sometimes it is hard to keep our focus on love. Sometimes we are so hurt that we find it difficult to love anyone, not just those that hurt us. Other times messages get in the way of us loving ourselves, so it is hard to love others.

Still, having a love like Jesus' can be found in our hearts. Through prayer and effort we can find ourselves loving even the most difficult people. We don't have to like someone's actions to love them. Jesus did not like many of the things people around him were doing, but he still loved them. Remember, sin is an action done by a real live person. There is a saying, "hate the sin, not the sinner." We all sin, and Jesus loves us. Sometimes we need to look beyond the act at the person instead.

Lets challenge ourselves this week and focus our prayers on loving the unlovable. Think of people in your life that you have judged by actions, and ask God to help you look beyond the act. Ask God to open your heart to loving those around you as He loves you, and ask him to heal any hurts that keep you from loving others. For us to feel God’s love we have to be willing to be loved. For us to be loved we must love others. It is easy to love those that already love us. But greater is the reward to love those that hate us.