Let us show love to one another

Indeed loving people is difficult. Yet this is what the Bible commands. "For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another" (1 John 3:11). We spend time on what we deem important. For many of us these choices are valid: time with family and friends, work, prayer, serving the poor, fighting for rights, protesting wrongs. But as the Scripture reminds us, "And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3).

Even though we have the freedom to set our own priorities, Jesus made a point of defining certain ones of them for us: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matt. 22:37-39). Love, then, is not a gray area the Scriptures. Jesus gave love priority over all other Christian virtues. Every thought, response, and act of goodwill must first pass through the fine filter of love, or it means nothing at all.

The logic of Paul's interpretation of Jesus' command that love fulfills the Law seems equally simple. For if one loves his neighbor, he will not commit adultery with his neighbor's spouse. If he loves his coworker, he will not lie to him. And if loves his enemy, he will not slander him. Love fulfills the law, because if we truly love every person because he is a person, we will not desire to hurt  or violate him or her, thus never break the law. God established love as the impetus for obedience.

In the end, the goal of the Christian life is love. The measure of our maturity is our love for God and our love for others. If we fail in our love we have missed what it means to be a Christian.

But there is hope for the one who has failed in love.

The Lord, who forgave even those who crucified Him, stands ready to forgive you of your lack of love. He wants to show His mercy toward you today, to cleanse your loveless heart and fill it with His loving Holy Spirit. Receive His mercy. Place your trust in Christ and let Him teach you how to love as He has loved you.