Love
Like Jesus
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved
you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another.” -- John 13:34-35
What does
love look like? I’m talking about the love Jesus had for us, the love He
commanded us to have for others. When you consider that kind of love, what do you
see?
Do you see
the man who’s been unfaithful to his wife? Who is still being unfaithful? Do
you see the woman who’s too busy gossiping to parent her children? Do you see
the young woman with an “easy” reputation? Or the teenage boy who bullies those
smaller than himself? What about the man with unethical business practices who
brushes it all aside as “just business”? Do you see love when you look at these
people?
The truth is
that if those people look and talk like you and have solid economic status, you
probably do. It’s easy to love those who are like us. It’s easy to ignore their
sins and accept them. We may even agree with that businessman who believes that
misleading people is okay so long as it’s not illegal.
Let’s look
at another question: What does love look like when you don’t particularly like
the other person? What does love look like when a baby cries incessantly throughout
the worship service? What does love look like when you’re in a hurry to leave
and an elderly person is blocking the way?
A few years
ago, I asked my cousin why she and her husband stopped going to church. I was
horrified at the reason. They were told that their adult daughter who had Down’s
Syndrome was no longer welcome. This was a “child” who loved church with her
whole heart, who tightly held the Bible she couldn’t read and listened intently
to the pastor’s sermon each week. But because she sometimes “commented” on his
words while he was preaching, she wasn’t welcome.
Love isn’t
always easy. Sometimes it means accepting someone who makes us uncomfortable.
Sometimes it’s loving someone in the midst of their sinful ways. Sometimes it’s
extending the same grace and mercy Jesus has extended to us.
Who are you
judging today? Who have you cast aside because of their “sin”? Who have you
failed to love as Jesus loves us?
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