43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 (Matt 5)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 cor 13)
The Bible has everything we need to know about love. It is much simpler than you think it is. The world makes things complicated. God makes things simple.
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt 22)
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4)
We are supposed to love God and love others. That’s it. It’s that simple. The thing is, if you REALLY love people you won’t want to hurt them, kill them, rob them, or destroy or damage their belongings. You don’t hurt people you love. If you are hurting someone you don’t love them. If you don’t love them, you don’t know God.
Yet we still do things that aren’t love even as believers. Sin, anger, pride, and other detestable things take over and interfere. We let them in and allow them to do as they please, so we then hurt people instead of loving them. Even just saying something harmful about someone allows those forces to infiltrate your heart and push love aside.
Perhaps it feels a little extreme, but we should truly start to think on that, if you don’t love we don’t know God. Do your actions and words show that you know God? Or are you a whitewashed tomb with dead bodies inside?
Which brings us back to this…
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matt 5)
You are to love EVERYONE. I mean every single human being to ever walk this earth. No one is exempt. Even those who hurt you and refuse to show love and be God. Even those who do not believe the same as you do that you consider enemies because of a belief. Even them you must love. If you do not love, you do not know God.
46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
It’s easy to love those that love you. It’s easy to accept those that are just like you that also accept you in return. It’s not as easy to love those that hate you and those that don’t believe that you do.
THIS is where the world is failing. If you do not fit the program perfectly at 100% they consume you and dispose of you. That is NOT what we were taught to do. We were taught to love EVERYONE. Loving everyone means not hurting, not killing, not destroying.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4)
All on earth are your brothers and sisters. You must love everyone. If you truly love them you will not hurt them or say hurtful things about them. If you don’t love them, you don’t know God. Even those that don’t know God, you must love them all the same.
It’s that simple.
