One is God. And the other is other people…people in our congregation and people in our wider community.
But loving as God commands is not always easy….some people can be very difficult to love Is there someone you find difficult to love?
Do you struggle with loving some people?
Maybe they have hurt you.
Perhaps they are so different from you that there is nothing in common.
Our struggle to love someone shows that we are human. And it shows that we are serious about love.
Anyone can have a theoretical romantic approach to love. From a distance we can say we care about someone. We can even pray for them. But shouldn't our prayers be the starting point that are pointing us towards some action?
For instance in Matthew 9:37-38 Jesus says to the disciples ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field. Then in the very next verse in chapter 10 guess what He says to the disciples. “You go.”
And that is being active in love.
And such love is hard.
Loving a homeless person, loving someone who has hurt you, loving someone who is different from you or loving a problem person are some of the people God wants us to love. And loving them can be difficult.
Consider verses 12 and 13 of John 15. Jesus says “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
God is calling us to be involved in a love that gives.
Many people find giving and laying down their life even for their friends difficult much less those people we have problems with.
As people affected and infected by this world, most of our lives are orientated around what makes us comfortable, what we want, what we can get, what we have.
Giving like Jesus is not a natural thing for us. At times we will struggle in loving others as God has loved us. There is only one remedy for this.
We need to constantly be connected to the source of love. When it comes to love we are a lot like a soaker hose. A soaker hose is nothing more than a dry bit of rubber. It has no hope of giving life. For it to be effective it needs to be connected to a source of water.
But when it is connected to water, water flows not only into it but also through it and out of it. It not only receives water it also passes water onto whatever is around it. Likewise for us to love like Jesus we need to be connected to God.
And when we do this God and His love not only flows in us, it also flows through us and onto those around us. And so our times of worship together, our times in small groups, our times in personal and family devotions are times where God is not only showing His love to us, but also preparing us to love others as He has loved us.
Now back to your situation and the people you are struggling to love.
It may take time to love as God has loved you. However keep on persevering. Keep listening to God. Some of these people may take time. We are called to live a life of love….loving God and loving others. They are not to be separated.
Remember the Greatest Commandments....Life is about loving God and loving others...and why? because Jesus first loved us.....
by Pastor Richard Schwedes (Portland-Heywood Lutheran Church)
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