Do we really love?

We are on a journey of learning how to Love God and Love People and discovering what that really looks like in our community.

When Paul is writing to the Roman church he says not to pretend that we love others, but to really love them.  Now this sounds pretty obvious, but when I really thought about it, it’s actually quite challenging.

It doesn’t say really love your family or really love your friends and people you like, it says really love others.  Others is everyone and anyone that you come across in all parts of your life.

So what does that look like – how should my life look if I am really loving others?

Others includes the bus driver and taxi driver, the person serving me at the grocery store, the person who just pushed in front of me in the queue at that grocery store, the car that cut me off on the way to work, the child who bullies my children – you get the picture.

At first it seems easy, until you consider who others are and what it means to really love them.  This isn’t just a passing glance, this is LOVE. Some great descriptors of love are when Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he said it is patient and kind, not jealous, proud or rude.  It doesn’t demand it’s own way, it doesn’t get irritated and it keeps no record of wrongs.  It delights in the truth, it never gives up, never loses faith, always hopes and endures through every circumstance.

We can love because God first loved and by us loving others we are giving them a chance to see what God has done in us. John says that when we do this we live like him in this world.

So every time you come across others as you’re going about your daily life, ask God to help you to really love them, because otherwise they might miss out on experiencing it, if they don’t see it in you.

Be The Church.