God has set the bar very high in regards to love. He gives a definition in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, where it says that “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Love has qualities that are seen both on the inside and the outside. Love is not just a feeling, although feelings are clearly involved with God’s explanation. Love is not just an outward action, although those appear in that definition as well. Love combines both of those and should be apparent to all people, as Jesus says in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Clearly, love should be so obvious that everyone knows that we have it as Christians. The Bible says, “Let everything that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). That includes how to treat someone who just disrespected you, that family member who’s wearing on your last nerve, and any other exception that we might consider to this rule. It may be tempting to do things to pay people back, but this isn’t the way that Jesus has taught us to live (Matthew 5:38-41).
Later in that same chapter, Jesus says to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same?” (Matthew 5:44b-47). From experience, I have found that praying for your enemies (in a good way) helps you to love them.
The level of love that we need to have for even our enemies deserves some thought, because it’s well beyond what we might choose on our own. Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). Jesus’ love for us took Him to a cross, where he suffered terribly even for people who didn’t care about Him. We have been called to suffer even for doing the right thing (1 Peter 2:20-24), which we may have to do because of love. Can we love everyone the way that Jesus loves them?
Hopefully by this point you realize that you could do better in loving people to meet the mark that God has set for us. We can have a new beginning today, and every day, in terms of loving our neighbor as much as ourselves. We can (and should) have a new beginning in loving God too, since we’re supposed to love Him “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37b). Basically, love God with everything that you have within you. As long as we’re on earth, it’s not too late for a new beginning in love. So let’s love like there’s no tomorrow, because there may not be a tomorrow for us anyway (Matthew 24:42).
