In the New Testament Jesus gives us a command saying, “...Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” – John 13:34. This scripture tells us that one of our callings in life is to love others as God loves us.
Now just saying you must love others is easier said than done because let’s face it. Sometimes it’s hard to love.
I think we as people find it hard to love others because:
A) We don’t love ourselves,
B) How on earth can we love those who have hurt/disappointed/offended us?
C) And because some people are crazy, so why should I love them? ...Right?
Let me be the first to admit that I don’t love EVERYBODY in my life. Yes! And I know you don’t too so we both are in the same boat. Now, having that said, let’s see what the bible says because Jesus does not suggest but commands us to love which means we have to.
As read earlier, there are some reasons and probably many more as to why we don’t love others. If loving others is a command from Jesus this means we need to deal with those reasons so we can get on with the way Jesus has called us to live our lives.
My first point to why we don’t love others is because we don’t love ourselves. I don’t really think many people go around telling the whole world that they hate themselves, although there are a few, but not everybody. I think we can all agree that we live in a harsh world, and in this harsh world, we have all experienced mean, bad and ugly things in our lives. Whether you like it or not, these things do shape us as people, and sometimes because of these mean, bad ugly things we tend to become mean, bad and ugly people - However, at the end of the day what you become is a choice and sometimes some people choose bad.
I have come to understand that when people are mean, bad and ugly it’s because they’re that to themselves. Think about it, You wake up on the right side of bed, You feeling like you’re on cloud nine, You looking your best and everything in your life is going great, because you’re feeling all that goodness inside you, that is the energy you will pour out onto others. So let’s think about it in the opposite. If you’re feeling low and nasty, you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, you’re just in a bad mood and nothing is going right for you in your life, you feel bad right? And by you feeling bad, that is the same energy you will be pouring out onto others.
People don’t just hate others. Something inside them is broken, hurting which then gets poured onto others. So until we fix what is mean, bad and ugly inside of us we will never be able to walk in what Jesus commands us to do.
The second point is that it’s very hard to love those who have hurt/disappointed/offended us. The bible is very clear that we are supposed to forgive the offences of others just like we want to be forgiven of our own offences. Forgiveness can be a very different pill to swallow but we must learn to forgive and move on in order to truly love others just as Jesus commands.
Galatians 5: 14-16 says, “For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
When we start to fix our eyes on Jesus and completely surrender everything to Him, our offenses included these things don’t matter but only God. Learn to walk with the Holy Spirit and let Him guide your every step, that way we will surely be people who are quick to forgive, let go and just love.
More scriptures on forgiveness: Romans 5:8, Luke 17:3-4, Matthew 18:21-22
And my last point of why we find it hard to love others is because we think some people are crazy and they don’t deserve our love.
By already concluding in our minds our own perceptions of others and determining whether that person deserves to be loved based on our perception is very wrong. The bible tells us that we are not to judge others and Jesus further goes on to say in Matthew 7:1-5 “... why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”.
Basically in a nutshell, we shouldn’t look at other people and think ill of them because we are worst off than them. We cannot point our wrongs in other people when we too are also not perfect.
Life is already so hard and there are already enough hateful people in the world. Try to not become one of them too. Walk in love as Jesus commands, by loving God, loving yourself and then loving others.
Love starts with the Father, accepting that He is Love and that He loves you. If you do not have a relationship with God, you don’t know God, you would like to know God or have unforgiveness in your heart, pray this prayer with me:
Father, I come to you today surrendering all my hurts, disappoints and offences to you. I believe that Jesus Christ is the saviour, the King of Kings and that You Father raised Him from the dead. Please forgive me of my sins, please wash me in your blood, help me to forgive others as you have forgiven me, please make me brand new and please make me a child of God. I’m born again, I am set free, and I am walking in this new life of love with you. In Jesus name, Amen.
If you just prayed this prayer above, I would like to congratulate you for becoming a child of God and would like to encourage you to join a Holy Spirit filled local church where you can fellowship with others and be under submission to a Pastor. If you do not have a church to go to and need help finding a church you can email me at [email protected] .
