Love Others Well

In our world today, there is a lot of hate. There is hate between countries, people groups, etc. It is everywhere we go and so often we forget what it means, as Christians, to truly love others. This is no easy task. It can be an extremely difficult thing to love someone; especially when it is someone whom you dislike or who has wronged you in the past. We also tend to base our love on appearances; however, as Christians, we are called to love everyone. Jesus calls us to do this in John 13:34-35 which states,

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

While on Earth, Jesus gave us the command to love one another in the same way that we have been loved by God. Verse 35 also states that if we love others then they will see Christ. We should love others so radically that they wonder why. By showing love to everyone, Christians immediately stand out. Today, there are very few acts of love that are readily seen in our everyday life; so easily, we choose to ignore, judge, or hate those who either have hurt us or who have not always chosen the same path that we have. What a difference it would make if we chose to love and show kindness to those people!

So, what does it look like to love others as a Christian in our world today? Loving others is showing kindness and forgiveness to those who may have hurt us. (Ephesians 4:22) It is serving others without expecting anything in return. (Luke 6:35) Loving others is going out of our way to talk to the person standing alone in the hallway. It’s sacrificing our time to go and help out another person. However, in everything we do it must be done with a genuine love, not the superficial love that is seen so readily in our world today. But you might say that this is too difficult to do sometimes. The truth is the only way we can truly love someone is if we truly love God because as 1 John 4:7 states,

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Without having and experiencing the love of God, we could not truly love others well. It is because of God’s love for us that we can love others. When we love others, we are showing them the love that God also has for them.