Loving One Another

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12 HSCB

There have been times in my life when I’ve thought, “Okay, everybody in the world is stupid. I don’t need anyone but God, so I’ll just make sure everything is good between the two of us and then I can just ignore other people altogether.” I’ve pictured myself as some type of wild looking hermit monk who lived in isolation being content to worship God without any contact with other people. Even though I would often like for that to be my reality, it just isn’t God’s plan.

God designed us to love Him and to love one another. He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to earth to make a way for us to have an eternal relationship with Him. God wants us to love each other as He loves us. Loving one another means more than simply being nice to each other. It means digging deep into each others lives, being open with each other, exploring the good and the bad parts of one another and then loving each other as Jesus would.

Are you ready to love others as Jesus loves you? If so, pray and ask God to show you someone with whom you need to build a relationship.

God, thank You for loving me so much that You sent Jesus to earth to pay the penalty for my sins. Teach me to love others as much as You love me so that Your love might be perfected in me.

To learn a little more about loving one another, read 1 John 3:16-24.