Be Salt & Light Blog | By Jaymi Firestone
The hatred you can see in our world today is gut-wrenching. People hurt one another. We judge each other’s lives. We leave others behind. We have that “every man for himself” mentality. That’s the only way we can get ahead anymore. If we don’t look out for ourselves, who will, right?
Sadly though, that mentality is completely contradictory to the “Golden Rule” our teachers taught us in elementary school. I’m sure you remember it, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Not only is that sound advice for our lives, it also holds some biblical truth. Jesus commanded that we “love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.”
That’s heavy. To love someone as much as as you love yourself. That’s near impossible, right?
If you’ve studied any of Christ’s life on earth however, you’d realize that He did everything in love. And we are commanded to live like Christ. So shouldn’t we be loving each other?
Christians get a bad reputation for being angry, judgmental, and hypocritical. We are known as the “bad tippers,” and the “judgmental jerks.”
If you talk to a server who works a restaurant on Sundays, they will tell you that the church crowd are the ones who are rude, complain the most, and leave the smallest tips.
I know there are exceptions, because I’m one of them, but the few of us who are trying to do this Christian thing right get a bad reputation because of the others.
“Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”
Ephesians 5:2 NLT
This verse in Ephesians is telling us to live a life filled with love, like Christ did.
Jesus died for us. If that doesn’t show His love, nothing will. Yet, we often treat others with disrespect and sometimes even hatred.
Love is difficult when you’ve been wronged, or when we have a strong opinion about something. I’m sure Jesus had many opinions on things, but He kept quiet about them as to not sin.
People wronged Him so many times. Take a minute to think about the way He was treated before being crucified.
Jesus was…
– Spit on
– Laughed at
– Mocked
– Beaten
– Whipped
…And though he was enduring terrible treatment, He still prayed for God to forgive those who were persecuting Him. He prayed “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
I can’t speak for you, but I know that I’ve never been through hardship or mistreatment to that extent. Ive never experienced that kind of suffering. However, I fail every day to love others the way God commands us to.
When I read my bible about how I should be living, I realize that all of it comes back to one common trait, LOVE.
If we love each other the way Jesus did, then we will be joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. All the fruits of the Spirit come easily when we love others. They all stem back to that one word.
So my hope is that we will love others wholeheartedly, as Jesus did. My prayer is that we stop judging others for their sins, and stop being hypocritical Christians.
Let’s live a life of love!
