Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and
with all your strength (Mark 12:30). The second greatest commandment,
He said, is to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). God is good
and perfect and unconditional in His love. He deserves to be loved by
us. But how can we love our neighbor? How can we love people who sin
and make mistakes? How can we love people who are very different from
us? How can we love people when they may never love us back? How can we
love those who hate us and hurt us?
They don’t deserve it! Or do they?
Whether
or not someone is worthy to be loved is not a question that should even
be asked. Everyone is worthy of love and in need of love. And not
because of anything other than the fact that they are human. It does
not depend on whether or not a person has the right education, the
right amount of money, or wears the right cothes. It does not matter
where they come from, what they look like, or how they talk. It is also
not dependent on whether or not they believe in God or belong to a
certain denomination. We do need to care about these things and others
like gender, race, age, and personality because they are a part of who
people are.but these things do not determine whether we should love
people. We don’t need to like everybody or agree with everything they
believe–but we do need to love them.
We definitely need help with this. We need God’s perfect love. We need
to see people through His eyes. He has created every single human
being. We are His artwork and He takes great delight in what He has
made. So should we. By not loving people we are not appreciating what
God has made. We are telling the Creator of the Universe that He has
made a mistake (and that we could have done better!). For those of us
who struggle with loving others, we need to begin by asking God some
questions when we look at people. Ask Him why He made them, why He
likes them, why He loves them. Ask Him what He enjoys about them. When
we listen to His answers, it becomes extremely difficult not only to
love them but also to appreciate them and find enjoyment in them like
He does. And the really miraculous thing is that when we start to see
people the way that God does, we ourselves are changed. The heavy
weight of judgment is lifted and we are free.free to love and enjoy
God’s creation, free to love ourselves and everyone we meet. Life
becomes richer, fuller, and a lot more fun.