“I hate you, and everyone hates you!” Those are the words I heard screamed from a neighboring backyard. Sobs and more painful words followed it.
I could tell the person on the receiving end was hurting. In fact, it made me hurt.
Sadly, we can be really good at finding reasons to dislike someone. We can often be experts at having a critical eye.
And we justify our dislike of people with the excuse that they are obnoxious, nerdy, stuck up, too serious, not stylish enough, too ugly, or even too pretty. Need I go on?
Do you know the real reason we struggle with loving people? It has to do with our sinful nature. It always wants to put us in a place of pride and superiority.
That’s why we have to fight for godly love in our relationships.
God, in his word, makes it clear that Christ-like love is a must for people who call themselves Christians.
Here are God’s three reasons why we should love people:
1. God loves people.
No one loves people more than God does. He proved his love for us by sending Jesus.
He “so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (John 3:16)
Let’s apply this verse directly to someone you dislike. “God so loved the person you can’t stand that he sent his one and only Son.” This changes everything.
And God demonstrated his love for people “in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8.)
2. God commands us to love people.
Jesus couldn’t have made this any more transparent than when responding to this question from one of the Jewish leaders.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
Did you catch that? Loving God and loving people go hand in hand. You cannot truly understand what it means to love your neighbor if you don’t love Jesus first.
There is nothing in your life more important than these two commands. Why? Because they help us fulfill all of the other commands. That makes loving people extremely important.
3. Loving people shows the world we belong to Jesus.
If you were to evaluate your life right now, would it show a love for people? According to 1 John 4:7-8, if we love people the way Jesus commanded us to, it shows that we are children of God.
It says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
We only know how to love each other because God teaches it to us through the life of his son Jesus. He is the only reason we know what true love really is.
Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:35)
Think about it this way: how you treat and love people is like a giant billboard on the side of the highway. It either says, ‘I follow Jesus’ or ‘I hate people.
What does your billboard say?
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