I was watching a video of a really talented and committed guy challenging college students to follow this Jesus of the Bible. During his talk to the young people gathered outside around him he said this: “You can’t treat people the way that they treat you. You have to treat them the way that Jesus treats you.” I liked that bold and Biblical statement. And I wondered if just maybe that’s what a lot of us do. I mean, maybe what we do is to actually treat people the way we think God is treating us. If we are outside of the experience of the love of Jesus, then the world looks pretty ragged. We may feel like God is always judging us, looking for ways to trip us up, never happy with us or trying somehow to cheat us. If that’s where we are, then it makes sense to trade pain for pain, deception for deception, judgement for judgement...because that’s all we know. The radical love that God gives us is free and forgiving and sacrificial. And if we know nothing of that love personally...then we only see the hardness of life and the shadow of love. Just before Jesus gave us the ultimate gift of love from the cross, he said that we were to love each other...just as he has loved us, we should love each other. And then he said that love would then be proof to the world that we were his disciples. But we cannot love each other, not really, until we experience and share and return the love that this Jesus gives to us. So never forget where you have come from, what you have been saved from and who did it all for you. Let God remind you of how he has treated each one of us and let that drive us into a love relationship with this God who tells us he is love. And when we do that, we will be able to turn to the world around us and treat them with a love that is merciful, kind, everlasting and like nothing else on this planet. And then we will have the right and the ability to share the
source of that love with a hurting, confused and helpless world.
Here’s our Bible verse for today...
John 13:34-35 NLT So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. (35) Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Remember I’m praying for you!
With love, PJ
source of that love with a hurting, confused and helpless world.
Here’s our Bible verse for today...
John 13:34-35 NLT So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. (35) Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Remember I’m praying for you!
With love, PJ