Loving Others

Every day I continue to learn more and more what true love is. Love is something that many people struggle to define or demonstrate to others. According to the Bible, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails” (1st Corinthians 13: 4- 8, NIV). Reading the Bible’s description of love, how many of us love others that way? The love that was spoken of in 1st Corinthians 13: 4-8, was the same love that Jesus demonstrated towards us when he put on flesh, came to this earth born of a virgin, suffered, and died for us. God did not just tell us about love but showed it to us.

As Christians we should strive to be more like Christ each day; following in his footsteps and obeying his commandments. One of the commandments that God has given us is to love one another. Love helps us to overcome the works of the flesh such as “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and so forth” (Galatians 5: 19-21, KJV). Without love we have nothing. Love is one of the greatest things we can have in our lives (1 Corinthians 13:13). It doesn’t matter your title in church or the great things you can do, if you don’t have love for one another all is vain. How can you love God who you cannot see and hate your brother that you can see? The bible states, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he have not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:20-21, KJV). That is a tough command to follow but it is necessary for Christians to obey. The Bible even went a little further to say that we should love our enemies. Yes, the ones that drive you crazy every day, the ones who have brought pain and hurt to your lives, the ones who criticized you, the ones that talk bad about you, the ones that are waiting to see you fall, the ones that you can’t stand, and so on. Every single person we come in contact with we have to love.

For years now I have been practicing to love others as the Bible states. It is not easy, especially when you are in a situation where it is hard to love but with self-discipline I was able to love the person despite what I was going through. It took me a long time to forgive my ex for all the hurt and pain he had caused in my life. But when I began to practice love in my life it was much easier to learn to forgive him and myself. Forgiving him helped to remove the hatred and hurt in my life. I am thankful I was able to get over that situation and move on with my life. The hatred I had on the inside had turned me into a “monster”. I was very impatient, always lashing at others, and just had a negative attitude towards everything. But learning how to practice true love, brought me back to the loving and caring individual that I was. I am very thankful to God for that because now I am able to love my family, friends, husband, and others unconditionally.

Another important thing I learn is that we should not measure a person’s love for us based on what they give us or how they make us feel. We should be the ones giving of ourselves to make the other better and happy. Too many of us are self-centered and only care about how we feel and not others. But true love turns it around and focus on how the other person feels. We should never do anything to hurt someone or bring them down…that is not love. The Bible is not there just for us to read but for us to take what we learn and apply them to our lives…put it into practice. So for today your challenge is to------- LOVE others as it stated in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 and you will begin to see a positive change in your life.