Monday - It’s Hard to Love

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." — 1 John 4:7

There's an old Peanuts comic where Linus says, "I love mankind… it's people I can't stand!" I laughed when I read that. Then I thought, "That's honestly true." I love people in general. It's the specific people I struggle with.

Let's be honest. We all have somebody whose name pops up on our phone, and we let it go to voicemail. It's hard to love someone who annoys us. It's even harder to love someone who's hurt us.

But Jesus didn't leave us an out. He said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).

Not by our knowledge. Not by our attendance. Not by our bumper stickers. By our love.

When God repeats Himself, pay attention.

In 1 John 4:7–12, the word love shows up fifteen times in six verses. Fifteen!

When my mom told me something once, it was a suggestion. When she told me over and over, I knew she meant business. When God says something fifteen times in six verses, He means business.

If you asked me to sum up the Christian faith in one sentence, I'd hand you 1 John 4:7. Love comes from God. Those who are born of God love. Those who love show that they know Him.

I'm convinced the single most important thing a Christian can learn while on this earth is how to love. That's one of the reasons God created us — to learn His love, and to learn to love others in that same way.

Here's why that matters so much: if you learn how to love, everything else in the Christian life falls into place. Your worship. Your relationships. Your service. It all flows out of love.

Hard, but not impossible.

Loving people is hard. Loving people the way Jesus loves us is even harder. But guess what? It's not impossible.

The secret comes down to one word — reflection. The more you reflect on God's love for you, the easier it becomes to love others.

So, before you think about that difficult person today, remember where love comes from. Love is of God. You don't have to manufacture it. You just have to receive it — and pass it on.