How to Love, Part 3

Is there anyone you tend to hate, or who consistently angers you? Most of us have someone or something. Confess!

My confession: My top three are Islamic terrorists, the Chinese Communist Party, and crazy leftists. Now when I think about it, as a follower of Christ, I shouldn’t hate any of these people; I’m not even allowed to. But these indulgences of the flesh sometimes surface when I read the news. Yet I’m working on overcoming this and working on loving people whom I find hard to love.

This commitment is particularly relevant in the divided political climate of the USA.

If I love God, I am obligated to love people with God’s love—and not on my own terms but on God’s. This can be hard, very hard, because it goes against human nature.

Loving another believer is to love a brother or sister in the faith. Loving your neighbor means everyone, including the ones we don’t like. And when questioned about it in Luke 10, Jesus deliberately chose a Samaritan—whom the Jews of that day loved to hate—to illustrate loving one’s neighbor.

The Second Great Commandment in Matthew 22:39 comes from Leviticus: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” No qualifications. Even for people we do not like.

If we turn the commandments around and love our neighbor first with a human love of doing nice things or going along with some social agenda, we relegate the primary love of God to an afterthought. For example, historically, Christians have done far more for social justice around the world than any other group of people. And it’s because of their primary love for God. The love of God in them has compelled them to lift up people who are made in the image of God. But when social justice, for example, becomes the main thing, human righteousness takes center stage, and it often ends up not going very well—or going against God himself.

Loving God and loving in God’s way according to his Word is the substance of how we best love our neighbor. Pastor Rick Warren’s words ring eternally true:

Our culture has accepted two lies:  The first is if you disagree with someone, you fear or hate them.  The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do.  Both are nonsense.  You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.

This is possible in great measure when we love God first and then love people with God’s love.

Join me in giving yourself to loving God first—and to loving the people, including the ones you don’t like.

Photo credit: Amy Burton | FreeImages.com