How to Love Others Perfectly

“Our natural-born form of love is corrupted. It seeks to fulfill our personal desires and lusts, where we put ourselves above others. But there is a perfect love, which comes from our Creator, who can pour that love within us.” 

Do you love yourself? Does that sound odd? Let me ask it this way. When you are hungry, do you find something to eat? When you are thirsty, do you find something to drink? When you are injured, do you find a way to treat yourself? What about when you are tired, lonely or in financial need? Whenever you have needs and care for yourself like this, it is called loving yourself. (Image by Leroy Skalstad from Pixabay)

Read this statement Jesus made, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:40). He made this a universal standard that all people are to live up to. Sometimes we call it, The Golden Rule, which means we are to treat others, the way we would want to be treated. This means when someone is without food, we help feed them, as if we were the ones without food. And the same with any other need. We come alongside our neighbor to help them, just as if we were taking care of ourselves.

Who is our neighbor? A man once asked Jesus the same question and He gave a story to help him understand. He told about a man who had been traveling, and was robbed and beaten, then left for dead alongside the road. A couple people came by, and walked right on past the near-dead traveler. Then a third person stopped to help and got him the care he needed. In the story, Jesus reveals how the good Samaritan who assisted was a different race and religion than the traveler. He also reveals how the man in need was in such poor condition, he could not help himself. The beaten traveler required help from others to survive.

We are to love everyone, especially those neighbors who are different from us. Like people with a different skin color, religion or no religion, different values or habits, and the list could go on. Our neighbors are also those who cannot help themselves. They may have some needs they cannot meet themselves. And our neighbors are those who have mistreated us. For we do not withhold love from those who have hurt us, but we show them love by God’s power. 

Read Jesus’ full comment about loving one’s neighbor, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:37-40)  

What does Jesus mean that everything depends on these commandments? 

The Bible is filled with all sorts of moral commands; things we are to do and not to do. And they all affect other people. Therefore, the only way we can meet God’s standard and properly treat others, is if we are controlled by heaven’s love. Instead of just feeding ourselves, in love we also feed our neighbor who is in need. Rather than lying to our neighbor to protect ourselves, in love we tell the truth. Instead of using our home just for ourselves, we invite others to enjoy it also. This is perfect love, and no one can have this kind of love naturally. 

For our natural-born form of love is corrupted. It seeks to fulfill our personal desires and lusts, where we put ourselves above others. But perfect love, comes not from us, but from our Creator. When we learn the first commandment, loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, then we discover how to perfectly love others. 

How can we get this kind of love? Only through Christ. He died and rose again to change us, that we might have His perfect love poured into us.         

A prayer for you – Lord God, we humble ourselves before you and ask that you would fill our hearts with your perfect love. We admit we have failed and fallen short in how we have treated you and others. Change us, O God. Through your love, make us new people. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What’s On Your Love List?

“In order to bear the name Christian, there’s a condition. God requires your complete devotion. There can be no higher love.”

Love. It is a much-used word. We love our family. We love our friends. We love our hobbies; like fishing, hunting, golf, wood-working. We love our things; like cars, trucks, homes, cell phones, tablets. We love our food. We love our sports teams. We love our work. We love our learning. And some of us maybe even love our bodies; our smile, eyes or maybe even our six-pack abs (buried under lots of skin of course). (Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash)

And how do we demonstrate that love? The commitment or devotion we show to those things through the time we give to them, the money we spend, how much we talk about them, the sacrifices we make.

Now all these “loves” surround us. We love OUR family, OUR friends, OUR hobbies. Perhaps we could call it OUR love list. Notice though, I have left one important person out – God.

Let me bring Jesus in on this. There was once a religious lawyer, an expert in Old Testament Jewish law that asked Jesus a question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25) Put another way, it could be asked, “What must I do to receive the forgiveness of sins?

Since the lawyer was the expert, Jesus asked him to answer the question, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” (Lk. 10:26) Then the lawyer responded with an Old Testament quotation about loving God, “And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ And [Jesus] said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’” (Luke 10:27-28) 

In your list of things you love, is God on there? And why is that important? Because your life depends on it! Let me explain. 

Notice the lawyer’s question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Then observe Jesus’ response to the lawyer’s answer, “do this, and you will live.” So if he chose to love God, then he would receive the gift of eternal life, which means if the lawyer refused, he would be condemned to the opposite; eternal death. The implications of loving God are massive for every single one of us.   

Now what is eternal life? After a person turns from their disobedient ways and to Jesus by faith, then he instantaneously receives the indwelling invisible Spirit of Christ within him. This is what gives him eternal life, the life of Jesus. 

According to what Jesus said, this gift is dependent on loving God with all one’s heart, soul, strength and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. What is Jesus communicating? Full commitment, total loyalty and maximum devotion to God through His beloved Son.  

There was once a wealthy young man that was drawn to Jesus, and asked a similar question like the lawyer. Jesus told the man that if he wanted to follow Him, then he must sell all his possessions and give them to the poor. The man could not part with his wealth, so he dejectedly walked away from Jesus. The man loved his wealth more than His Creator.

In order to bear the name “Christian” and receive the everlasting life of Jesus within you; there is a condition. He requires your complete devotion. There can be no higher love. Why? Because when He initiated a covenant relationship for you to enter into with Him, it required His greatest commitment; the sacrifice of His deeply loved Son. In similar fashion, for you to receive all the blessings He wants to bestow on you, you must love Him above all else. Will you love Him today?   

A prayer for you – Lord God, I praise you for how you have shown your love for all mankind through the death and resurrection of Jesus. What love! Now you call us to love you in return, which you are most worthy of. Examine our ways. Point out if there is anything we love greater than you, that we would yield it to you this hour. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Why is God Kind to The Evil?

“Lord, why? Why do you allow this evil?” It is a common question, that anyone in unjust situations would ask.

As a minister I have preached in prisons, visited inmates and for years had a weekly service in our county jail. So it caught my interest when I recently read about a man who was convicted and sentenced to prison for murdering a friend of his. The reason for the story was because he was set free after being wrongfully imprisoned for 28 years. The sole witness in his case was pressured into picking him out of a lineup and paid off. There were many other corrupt elements to his situation, including how the actual murderers eventually came forward and confessed to the crime, but the man remained in prison. I cannot imagine being wrongfully imprisoned for just a few months, let alone for nearly three decades. (Image by Ichigo121212 from Pixabay)

Evil people conspired and succeeded (for 28 years) in doing evil things against this innocent man. How often do we see this? Evil people inflicting injustice against the innocent? If one is the victim, it is enough for them to cry out, “Lord, why? Why do you allow this evil?” It is a common question, that anyone in unjust situations would ask. And it would seem to be a legitimate one. 

Jesus once addressed this through a story about weeds and wheat. There was once a farmer that planted wheat and as it was nearing maturity, it was discovered a nemesis of the farmer had sought to destroy his crop, by purposefully and deceitfully planting dangerous weeds. The farm hands immediately wanted to uproot all the weeds, but the farmer chose to let the weeds remain until the harvest.  

In this story, Jesus was illustrating how it is a divine decision to let evil remain in the world until His return and judgement day. What does that mean? 

Is not one of the sources of evil, the hearts of people? It is a truth, that evil deeds are done from evil hearts. Therefore, to eradicate the world of evil, would mean eliminating all people who have ever committed an evil deed. Would not that involve the deaths of millions upon millions of people? And what about you? What if you should ever slip up and do something evil? Would you then be gone too? Who would be left? 

Why does Jesus allow evil people to remain? Mercy! If Jesus chose to, He would be justified in destroying the life of every person who perpetrated evil. Consequently, allowing them to live is in itself, merciful. 

But why? Because Jesus knows that evil people, doing evil things – can be changed. It is for this reason He came from heaven to earth, to sacrifice Himself on a cross, and be raised again. This was done to give every soul the opportunity to choose freedom and liberty, that they might be ransomed from the evil that has enslaved them.    

Liars. Manipulators. Deceivers. Corrupt people in positions of power. Abusers. And I could add more to this list. All of them, are candidates for heaven’s mercy. This is why Jesus says, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Matthew 6:35-36)

How do we walk through the dark valleys of injustice and evil without falling prey to its tentacles of unforgiveness and hate? Pray for our enemies. Believe they can be changed by the power of God. Overcome evil with good. Show mercy, as God has shown you mercy.  

A prayer for you – Lord God, we pray for those individuals who have committed acts of evil against innocent victims, including ourselves. We pray you would perform a miracle and change their hard and evil hearts by the grace and mercy of Jesus, and we pray you will help us to love and forgive them. We cannot do this on our own. We need your power to help us love our enemies. In Jesus’ name. Amen.