How do we love?

Let me just say that loving is hard, sometimes. It's really easy to love when your wife has just cooked you homemade ravioli that you know is going to put you in an Italian food coma of fullness, but it's harder when someone messes up at work and blames it on you. Why is that? Well, as usual, I think it's probably a good idea that we turn to God to figure this one out and to find our example for how to do things right.

If you don't get anything else from this post, get this: God loves people because of who HE IS. That excludes every other possibility. Let me just go ahead and say that if you ask, "but doesn't he also love people because of..." just cut yourself off there; I'm kindly saying, "no." There is NO other basis for God's love for a person than His Being. That is the point. now, there are a whole bunch of implications here. One set has to do with what that means for God's relationship with us. And one has to do with our relationships with each other.

I really want to focus in tonight on the second set. Do you find yourself often getting angry with other people and letting them see your anger in how you treat them? It's easy to do. Do you hold grudges against people? Do you give up on people and form an unalterably low opinion of them? Well listen, whether or not you respond to someone with kindness should have nothing to do with how that person treats you. Whether or not you love a person should not be based upon whether or not they love you. It should be based upon your IDENTITY as a Christian, and you, as a Christian, are IDENTIFIED with Christ. Thus, it flows that if God loves people because of who he is, we should love people in the same way - we should love people because God loves them, and he is in us. There are so many pictures of this and so many blatant statements of this principle in His Word.

So here's the deal, I love my coworkers because I am indwelt by the Holy Sprit of God, who is Love. I love my wife the same way. I love literally every human being, in accordance with God's command, completely regardless of any attribute or action on the part of those people. I behave toward each person as God commands me to behave, regardless of how each person behaves toward me. (A note: I am not saying that I do not rebuke or that I do not fight against sin. That is ridiculous and unbiblical and would reflect a misunderstanding of what it means to love.) What I am saying is that, even if I disagree with someone, and even if that person is cruel to me in an argument, I should not strike back in anger; I may debate, but I will do so without malice.

Christians, love all people, even those of the non-believers who hate you, ridicule you, and look down upon you as ignorant. Love them; DON'T try to find reasons to love them; that will produce false love. DON'T start by trying to find out reasons to like them; first, you need to tap into God's love and simply realize that, in this context, all humans are exactly like you; they are all people love by God because he is God. Do not water down Love by making it about anything else.

I love you all.