How to show love and respect for others

The Bible says we are to love one another. Sounds good, but can it be done? Whoever said, “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand,” was about right. People are just irritating. I agree with the guy who said, “To live above with those we love, oh, how that will be glory. To live below with those we know, now that’s another story.” Sometimes it’s hard enough to love our own family. One guy told his wife that if she had really loved him she would have married someone else. How do we make love a dominate characteristic of our lives? 1. Make love a priority. “For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another” (1 John 3:11). We spend time on what we deem important. For many of us these choices are valid: time with family and friends, work, prayer, serving the poor, fighting for rights, protesting wrongs. But as the Scripture reminds us, “No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love” (1 Cor. 13:3 The Message). Even though we have the freedom to set our own priorities, Jesus made a point of defining certain ones of them for us: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:37-39). In Strength to Love, Martin Luther King, Jr., encouraged us to realize that “our responsibility as Christians is to discover the meaning of this command and seek passionately to live it out in our daily lives.” But why love? What makes it so important?

2. Understand the importance of love. When Jesus spoke to the disciples regarding the first and second greatest commands, he explained that “these two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hang from them” (Matt. 22:40 The Message). Jesus also said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another” (John 13:34). The apostle Paul goes on to tell us “Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10). The logic of Paul’s interpretation of Jesus’ command that love fulfills the Law is simple. For if one loves his neighbor, he will not commit adultery with his neighbor’s spouse. If he loves his coworker, he will not lie to him. And if loves his enemy, he will not slander him.

Love fulfills the law, because if we truly love every person “because he is a person,” we will not desire to hurt or violate him or her, thus never break the law. God established love as the impetus for obedience. 3. Demonstrate the virtue of love. How do we demonstrate the distinctiveness of Christian love? Love values the other person. While love is a wonderful, warm feeling, love is not merely a feeling. In fact, according to the Bible, love is primarily an active interest in the well-being of another person.

Love acts for the benefit of others. God loved us not because we had something to offer him, but rather because we mattered to him. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God loved us because we were precious to him. He valued us. He loved us because of our worth. True love always costs. If there is no cost there is no love. In the end, the goal of the Christian life is love. The measure of our maturity is our love for God and our love for others. If we fail in our love we have missed what it means to be a Christian.

Dr. Krouse is pastor of First Baptist Church of Colusa. He can be reached at 696-0563 or sskrouse@succeed.net.