As Christians, we know God is love and we know Jesus showed us how by example. We even know the Bible tells us to love one another.
Yet we have a tendency to resist.
Why is that?
It might be because we:
- haven’t read the Bible to know the truth
- are too busy with our own needs and wants
- can’t see others the way Christ does
- Are too judgmental or biased
- have misconceptions of what loving looks like
All of us come to the cross with different backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences, affecting our perception of Christ’s love. This perception is altered by getting to know Christ through His Word and by forming a relationship with Him instead of doing things out of duty.
Many misperceptions are formed from what we learn from the world or from false teachers. The purpose is to look deeper within ourselves as we learn how to love others easier.
What We Don’t Know
Even those considered dedicated Christians only attend church once or twice a month. That’s two hours out of 720 hours in a normal month.
Sunday Schools are almost non-existent anymore, Bible studies aren’t common, and very few read the Bible for themselves.
Most Bible learning nowadays comes from online devotions, Bible studies, or podcasts. Out of that, I have no idea how many seek the Lord in prayer before listening or reading to discern truth.
Because of this, it’s easy to understand why many aren’t aware of how Jesus loved.
Good news! We can fix this by reading the Bible ourselves and praying before reading and listening to all teachers and ministers, and before reading devotions.
Meanwhile, let me remind you of how God loved.
God loved. . .
- So much He created man in His own image
- Mightily by giving us chance after chance to repent
- By Rescuing His chosen people out of slavery
- By Healing the sick
- Enough to fight our battles for us
- Enough to get in the pit with us to raise us out
- Enough to give us peace that passeth all understanding
- By Giving up His only begotten Son to pay a debt we owed
- So, He’s making a mansion for those who are saved
What can you add?
To know more, keep reading this and take time to read the Gospel of John
Too busy
This is a trap we all fall into. Who has time to love others? If in a grocery line, we’re frustrated with the high prices, bad words overheard, children acting up in front of us, or the slow cashier.
Loving them is the last thing on our mind. Besides, loving others takes time, which we don’t have – at least that’s what we think.
Loving others takes being intentional, but how do we get there?
First and foremost, pray. I know that sounds like the “Christian-eze” response, but bear with me.
Ask God to give you speed to get necessary tasks done and to let go of the unnecessary ones.
Then take a moment to meditate on how much He really loves us, as pointed out above and in the book of John. When one feels loved, we can’t keep ourselves from responding. It begins to flow to everyone.
My husband and I always joke for the Bible doesn’t instruct a woman to love her husband. It instructs us in Eph.5:25-28 to obey our husbands, which a lot of women get upset about. However, that verse comes after Jesus tells the man to love his wife as Christ loved the church.
I love my husband with everything I am and everything I have. And it’s easy! He loves me so fully and completely that I can’t help but respond.
When you truly grasp how much Christ loves you, you won’t be able to hold it in. It will spread to others as His instrument.
Remember, relationships take time and change will come so don’t expect a lot overnight but expect a spark to light within your soul that will catch fire.
What We See
It is difficult to see others as Christ sees them. We see the ugly, the bad habits, the failures, being in a different social status, and the like.
The answer is to see others as Christ does.
God sees His own creation that He took time to create out of dirt instead of speaking into existence the way He created everything else. He also breathed His very own breath into mankind.
God sees our heart and knows when we’re trying to deceive and put on airs.
God sees a work in progress.
God sees our abilities over our shortcomings.
God sees a “whosoever” He wants to spend eternity with, regardless of how they’ve lived so far.
God sees our sins no more after repenting.
God sees a willing vessel He can work through when we surrender – one He can equip for His purpose.
He doesn’t see the color of our skin, our job status, or our shortcomings.
I got to practice this type of love during a 10-yr. feeding ministry I co-founded with my husband. We didn’t look at social status, the clothes worn, or the bad odor. Neither did our wonderful volunteers.
Instead, we saw them as God’s children He wanted saved and had compassion on. We served with a smile and looked them in the eye, so they knew they had value and were loved.
Judgmental or Biased
“They are different than me!”
Have you ever realized people are scared of others that are different than what they’re accustomed to?
I witness this often on a small scale by being blind. People don’t want to be around someone who can’t see, hear, or is in a wheelchair. What about someone with mental disabilities or mental illness?
The unknown brings fear.
Someone wearing different clothes the way the hippies did, or gothics do scares people.
If they are from a different culture like Native Americans or have a different religion, we know nothing about, people become biased and judgmental. It’s a natural reaction.
To top it off, we hear stories about various groups or ethnicities that add to our biasness.
How can we love those we don’t agree with or are afraid of?
Let me ask you a question my husband always asked our congregation to make a point. It is, “What did you do to be born in American?”
Hmmmmmmmm.
Absolutely nothing!!!
You could have been born with the color of skin of someone you hate. You could’ve been born in a home with a religion you despise. You could’ve been born in a home with parents more tolerant than yours.
But you weren’t.
Okay now that I have your attention, let me share who we are in God’s sight.
Everyone in the universe came from Adam and Eve – same bloodline.
Noah did, and after the flood, they repopulated the earth. It wasn’t much further down the road that mankind tried to put their minds together and create a tower to reach the heavens.
It was then God put a stop to it by creating different languages. He had told Noah’s sons to scatter and fill the earth when they got off the ark.
They didn’t.
Confusing their languages not only made them stop their unwanted project of building a tower, but it sent people into the world’s first ethnic groups. They scattered and repopulated to form nations.
Yes, they might think differently, act differently, and possibly believe differently, but they’re still your relation.
They are still sinners God loves and desires to come into salvation. Loving them is one of the quickest ways for them to do so.
Jesus died for them. Jesus died for you.
We have ALL sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Are you that different from them in God’s eyes?
If God’s willing to give them chance after chance, then, shouldn’t we?
Misperception of Christ Love
Christ loved everyone. So hard for us to imagine, huh?
He even took it a step further and instructed us to love our enemies.
How can we do something so insane? My enemy is that person who treated me unfairly, took advantage of me, talked bad about me, rejected me, or committed a crime against me.
It is harder to love those who hurt us or those we might even hate.
It is hard, but not impossible.
I believe the reason we refuse to allow Christ to love through us is because we have a misconception of what Christ expects out of us.
Trust me, I get it! As a pastor, I’ve been in situations where I needed to love the rude, the mean, the con, and those who:
- Stole from me
- Caused division in the church
- Cut down my kids
- Who talked bad about us
- Destroyed our personal property in a costly way
Have you struggled with this?
I mean, it is hard enough to forgive, but we don’t see any way of loving that person who victimized us, especially when it involves knives and guns.
I admit I still find it tough and struggle with it some, but then I think about our misperception of loving those who hurt us that we can’t forgive.
Seeing people the way God does (mentioned in a previous section) doesn’t help much for this group, but learning what God expects of us in terms of how to love our enemies makes it easier.
Even in the face of the greatest violation possible, God can show us how to love. Replace the misperceptions with the following truths:
- To love doesn’t mean you will have to trust again.
- To love doesn’t mean you have to be friends at any level.
- To love doesn’t mean I agree with what you did.
- To love doesn’t create amnesia of how I was violated.
- To love does mean I will forgive and release you from my prison of bitterness and anger.
- To love does mean I will cut the ball and chain that has locked us together in bitterness and torment.
- To love does mean to cut the strings of what you owe me for what you did to me.
- To love does mean I will let you off the hook and turn you over to God’s care.
Loving the way God asks requires courage. Letting Him love through you goes against your natural desire to turn anger into vengeful actions.
Lastly, think once again about Romans 3:23. Think about your life and the grace and mercy God has given you.
God loved you in spite of yourself. Still does. Can you extend that same grace to another?
God’s Love is Unconditional Mug
God’s Love is Unconditional.
He loved enough to forgive you. Can you do the same for others?
Thanks for taking time to read this. If you gained something from it, please share with your friends and consider donating to my ministry to help me write other posts like this.
© 2024, Jena Fellers. All rights reserved.
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