Failed Efforts To Love

I presume that I'm not much different that many others, but I must say that I find it hard to love some people. There are people in my life that I just don't know how or don't want to love.  However, what I have been recently taught and learning about is that loving others is extremely important. In the new testament Jesus talks about the two greatest commandments. The second one after loving God is to love the people around you and the people you meet as much as you love yourself.

Mark 12:30-31 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

I would focus my attention on the first and greatest commandment, but that is in another blog post that is to come. Instead I want to look at the second commandment Jesus stated. When Jesus talked about loving your neighbor He didn't mean just the guy next door, but Jesus was talking about everyone around you and those you meet. Even what is said in 1 John 4:21 brings to light how loving others is very important, actually fundamental to our relationship with God. 1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

How do you go about loving your neighbor? In 1 John 4:19 it states that we love because we have been loved first by God. Therefore, we love others because God loves us. See, we only know what love is because God loved us at the very beginning. When Eve was placed beside Adam in the garden I'm sure they knew nothing of love between each other, but they knew of the love that the Father had for them.

How do we show the same love the Father has for us to others? I don't feel as though I have a clear picture of this and I'm sure most of us don't, but this is what I have found. 1 John 4:15-17 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 

If we first love God then a direct result of that love will be a love for our neighbors. It very well may take a long time to develop, but when we love God we start to love the same people He loves.

In conclusion making an effort of attempting to show love to others isn't the answer. That is what we are called to do, but if we first learn to know and accept the love the father has for us we are then able to express that same love back to Him. Once we love Him the more we grow closer to and love Him the more we will begin to love others around us that He loves outrageously. Its a profound reality of one act causing the other to follow, we don't completely focus on loving others, but first love God.