As Christians, we receive a lot of assurances concerning the love of God. We’re told over and over that we are precious to him, and that he loves us. And his proof is visible; we read it in the Bible, we hear it in the Gospel. “For God so loved the world, that he gave us his only begotten son.” We see it in the detail he put into creating us, into creating our surroundings, each atom created with a purpose in mind, a purpose we attempt as humans to understand, a purpose that centers on us as his children. God loves us.
We see it in each other as well; we see it when we pull through a situation we’ve struggled in for so long, we see it when we, through the direction of the Spirit, touch other people’s lives. We see it in everyday situations, in those very normal moments with our family, when joy and peace and Grace abound, because Jesus loves us. And it is not based on our performance. We don’t have to do anything to make Him love us. We don’t have to be big, we don’t have to be special; He sees us for who we are and he loves us anyway.
Every single person, with their distinction, experiences the love of God. He doesn’t choose whom to give his love to. And we as Children of God need to understand and accept that. In this era of differences and confusion, there is so much that can easily lead us astray, and there are so many people struggling to see God. It is not for us to judge and condemn, but to open up our hearts, as much as we can without tainting ourselves.
The Bible says in 1 John 4:8; Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. That is the whole foundation of Christianity. Love. It’s very simple, and yet extremely difficult. Because love is selfless, love comes with forgiveness, and it tells us to cast aside emotions that come to us easily and naturally as humans. Envy, pride, resentment. We struggle to abide by these rules even when we are dealing with our own families, and people that we understand and accept that we love. People, who in a way, are easier to love, because they are family.
When it comes to people we have no (in quote) obligation to love, people who are strange to us in culture and traditions and race, and especially faith, we find ourselves struggling. It’s easier to condemn those people. It’s easier to judge them. It’s easier to think that we, because we partake of the word of God, are better than them. Jesus never made these kinds of prejudice against people. He didn’t separate people into categories of pure and impure. He died for all of us. Because he loved all of us.
I understand that being a Christian is never going to be easy, especially in a world such as this. There will be trials, and we will get angry, and we will point fingers, and we will condemn, but we also need to understand the people that we are pointing fingers at are also created by God. We are not better than they are, and I don’t think we have the right to point fingers at them either.
How can perfect love exist, if we choose who to give it to? Why should the love of God, which was meant for all his children, be divided amongst whomever we deem worthy of it? This love is God’s love, regardless of what that person does for us, whether or not we deem them equal.
Ephesians 4:2 says Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
1 Peter 4:8 says Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
God loves us first. There is no reason for you, and me, or any of us to exist. And yet we do. We are intended, God created every one of us with care, because he loves us. Jesus revealed the extent of that love by giving himself to save the world. Love that acknowledges the good in all of creation, in all of others. We were created by God to love.
Amen.
© Yolanda Beeko