In the dictionary, love receives the following meaning: “A feeling that leads one to wish the good of the other, deep affection for someone or something, intense inclination of affective character, sympathy, friendship, zeal and care”.
However, I would like to start today’s text by stating that love is not just a feeling, but a decision and a command from God for us.
Love as a commandment
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:31
Love is the second commandment of God for His people and the greatest left by Him, and why? Well, our father, with all his sovereignty and understanding, knew that we have an easier time loving those who are similar to us, but that is not what he expects of you and me.
Likewise, in Matthew 22:39, Jesus leaves it as a command that we love our neighbors as ourselves. The “neighbor” of this passage is not only the people who are close to us, but all those we live with, including those we have some difficulty in dealing with.
Decide to love every day
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
Love manifests itself in small everyday situations. Hardly a day is totally stress free, sometimes when you wake up everything seems to be upside down, either because of traffic, a word of bad mood from the one we love or so many other situations, but what is your reaction to these little things ?
In stressful situations we must remember what Jesus would do and make the decision to love, being patient, kind and keeping the heart of all resentments. Every day, God gives us 86,400 seconds to use them in the best possible way, which is deciding to love.
The image and likeness of God
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8
The verse in 1 John 4:8 is very clear, our Father’s nature is love, so if we don’t love others, we don’t love Him. We were created in the image and likeness of God – as written in Genesis 1: 26-29 – so we are soon able to love, we don’t always want to love the other, but we can.
I am sure that as a servant of the kind Lord, you want to be more like Him, so approach the Father, find Him and decide to love every day, ask for a heart like His.
God bless you!
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