John 13:34-35
Verse 35 “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The next thing we must continue growing in as Christians, is our love for one another. It is easy to give this discipline lip service bit when it comes to acting on what we know, well, that’s another story. We know we are supposed to love others and we would agree that it is a good practice but there is that one person who comes to mind and we think we can exclude them.
Of course since we are commanded to love we can’t really pick and choose who we would like to love. That is especially true when it comes to other believers. The church is sadly not as loving inside its four walls as we were commanded to be and whether we like it or not it, is obvious to the world we aren’t what we should be.
How can we show we truly love the people in our church if we don’t even like them? This gives us something to work through in our hearts and minds, why don’t we like these people? Sometimes it may be a matter of personality but we should be able to love them in their differences. Sometimes they may be annoying and that is still not a reason for not liking them. Which should make us question, is there any reason we can justify for not liking a fellow Christian?
Could it be that not liking another person has more to do with us than them? Maybe we think we are superior to others and that if they were more like us the church would be better. It could be we are holding unforgiveness in our hearts about them. It could be they hurt us in the past and we see them through the lens of that hurt instead of in the light of His love.
We can take some comfort in the fact the disciples weren’t perfect in their love for each other either. We can read stories in the Gospels, Acts and even in some of the epistles of how they disagreed about things and showed less than loving attitudes towards each other. The key is that they loved Jesus enough to choose to love each other, whether they fully agreed or not. Why not? Jesus had loved them even when they didn’t understand His position about something.
Making It Personal
Who do you need to work on your attitude towards? Is there someone you give too much attitude, who could then be struggling to love you? Who is easy for you to love? Why are they easy to love?
Making It Personal Kids
Is there someone you find it hard to get along with? Does someone find you hard to get along with? How can you be easier to get along with by being more like Jesus?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for this reminder of how we are Your representatives of love. Help us love each other as we should so we can make You known. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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