Love

Yesterday we thought about the songs we sing in worship. Lots of them are about love- our love for God, and His love for us. But how many of them are about our love....for our enemies?

 You have heard it said "You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Matthew 5: 43,44
Matthew records these words in chapter 5, right near the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. The Sermon on the Mount is like a manifesto, making it clear what sort of people Jesus is calling us to be. In John's gospel, we hear this call to love again as Jesus speaks to his disciples in the last week of his life.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this will everyone know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13: 34, 35

 Is love a virtue? Is it part of our character, that we should cultivate? Or is it an emotion, growing unbidden like a weed, surprising us sometimes with the objects of its affection? The language that Jesus uses suggests that love is a decision, and that we can tame it and train it. It may not be natural to love our enemies, but as Matthew 5 goes on to point out, anyone can love his or her friends. The love that Jesus talks about is new because it is not natural, it is more than an emotion, it is to become part of the character of those who follow the One who loved us so much that he gave himself for us.

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. 
1 John 3: 16-18 The Message

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