Thought of the Day #19: "Loving Others"

             In Mark 12:29-31 Jesus teaches that the most important commandments are that we are to love God with all heart, soul, mind and strength.  The second is to love others as we love ourselves.  The top priorities of life are laid out in these two commandments for us: Love God and love others.  It is through our relationship with God, putting Him first in our heart, soul, mind and strength, that we can have a relationship with others.  “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 (NIV)  It is important to do both, love God first and then love others.  Notice the verse doesn’t say love God and if you feel like it love others.  It also doesn’t say love God and love the loveable people.  Loving others includes the un-loveable people too.  “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20 (NASB)

            Loving others is not always easy but, it is even harder to not have anyone to love. Sometimes, especially when we are upset, we may desire to cut ourselves off completely from others.  Complete isolation may sound good but, it does not feel good.  Isolation from others will only hurt us.  Living through the up’s and down’s of relationships can either give us a “pep-in-our-step” or give us a stomachache.  Life is funny that way.  It’s like that saying, “you can’t live with them; you can’t live without them.”

            Life in ministry means life with people; People that will love us, support us, encourage us, help us…be good to us.  There are also those we encounter in ministry that hurt us.  As believers in Christ we are purposed to do something to help further increase the Kingdom of God.  Loving others is vital to any ministry.  It doesn’t matter if you are the leader of a ministry or involved as a “layman” in the ministry loving others is a part of it. 

            It is through prayer and studying His Word that we can be successful in our relationships.  If our focus stays on God then our relationships with others will be aligned with Him.  If we lose our focus and settle our focus upon other priorities then our relationships will be affected in negative ways.  This is why loving others is so important, so important in fact that this is why the Lord commanded it.  “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” 1 John 4:21 (NASB)

 

 

Thank You for reading! God bless you!