1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God….
It is pretty easy to love those who are like me, much harder at times to love those who are different, those who are prickly. It’s easy to draw lines of division between myself and those who don’t think like me or look like me, vote like me or worship like me. I had a dear friend tell me once that any time we draw a line between “us” and “them,” God is always on the other side, lumped in with our “them,” separated from us. That idea has stuck with me in a powerful way.
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us….
Vince Lombardi once said, “…love respects the dignity of the individual.” I find these words to be powerfully true and in keeping with Jesus’s teachings. God loves us fiercely, unconditionally, even when we screw up. The miracle of His love is not our capacity to love Him, it is the fact that the Creator of the Universe loves us, deeply, fully, even though we are infinitely human and fallible, even though we have nothing of value to offer in return. And He asks us to love others in the same way—just because we can, not because they deserve it or earned it or can repay it. Help me, Jesus.
1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
Lord, Thank You for this day, for this scripture, for Your fierce, unconditional, unending love. It can be incredibly difficult to put aside differences and to love others simply because they are Yours. It is tempting in this world to disqualify people, deem them unworthy of loving, based on views or beliefs, based on so many things. But You call us to love as You love—deeply, fiercely, completely, even though the other person doesn’t deserve it, didn’t earn it, may not even show they want our love. Help us to love as You love, Lord. Draw us closer. Amen.
1 John 4:19 We love because He first loves us.
Have a blessed day.
My faith, my life, my teaching–it's all a work in progress.