For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Matthew 5:46
I used to think that if I were to carry out kindness toward everyone, that would be enough to mimic God’s love so that I would be able to share it with others. Unfortunately, superficial kindness is not enough. God calls us to love everyone, not like the world loves, but like he loves.
1 Corinthians, the chapter of love, gives Christians a portrait of what love is in the eyes of God:
Love is…
- patient
- kind
- does not envy or boast
- not arrogant or rude
- does not insist on its own way
- is not irritable or resentful
- it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
-- Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
-- Love never ends (v. 4-8)
God’s love is not selfish, and it goes deeper than just sympathy. We cannot show this kind of love on our own, but it requires a complete heart change because it goes against our very human nature. It is the kind of love that calls us to love our enemies, which is very difficult to do, but God’s love does not forget those who are unlovely. He calls us to show love to the least of these. God does not ask us to love those who are easy to love, but those who need to see his love the most in their lives. He calls us to love the unlovely, the awkward, and the weird. He puts these people in our lives so that we can bring His hope and light into their lives and sometimes, they are the ones who are hurting the most. It is not enough to be kind to their faces and stop reaching out to them when they are not sitting in front of you. Love is patient and kind, it listens to those who are downtrodden and supports those who are hurting. All of us can think of people who are weird or awkward to talk to, but we are called to love them just as much as the people who are pretty, accomplished, and seem to have their lives together. All people are important in His eyes and not one escapes His glance. It is so important to learn to reach out to the vulnerable and into their lives to show them love.
I recently had a friend in my youth group that was ignored by the rest of the girls just because she was shy and perhaps a bit awkward. This is a small youth group where everyone knows everyone, and one would think that would cause the group of girls to band together and support one another, but instead, it was full of divides. I was horrified by the blatant disregard for my friend and her ideas that she shared. She later told me that she felt like she couldn’t speak in the group, because she was always ignored. This happened in a group of Christian girls, who should have been taking her under their wing because they knew that she was vulnerable. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in Christian circles.
In the movie, Mary Poppins, the little boy gives the money that his father gave him to the bird lady. The bird lady was unwashed, and dirty, ignored by most in society. Yet he gives her all that he has, sacrificing a toy or a sweet treat that he might have bought with that money. This simple act of kindness was from the heart, and touches the bird woman deeply. The amount that he gave was not much, but it was the single, unselfish act that made the difference. We should be living out that unselfish love in our every day lives, touching those who have been overlooked by society with the love of God.
As Christians, we should be loving others just as God loves us. Otherwise, there is nothing that separates us from how the world acts and loves one another. God’s way is different from the way of the world, and as God’s people, it is our responsibility to be showing his love to the world. It is not enough to just be kind, we must reach into the lives of the vulnerable and touch them with his love.