Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen.
There are just some people that I do not like. Love is a stretch. Some of them I am related too and pray for them but I just do not like them. I don’t like the moral choices or their selfish attitudes. Having said this “love’ is a stretch. If they are sick, I am there. Yes, I pray for them. I even bailed one out of jail. He belonged there.
So, this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God; and whoever loves the Father that begot him loves the child whom he begets.
It is not just my “unlovable” relatives it is anyone who is different, foul smelling or of a different race or religion. “The child whom He begets” God loves. He loves all of us. “How could he? He is God and we are not. God made all of us and loves all of us. It must be hard for him to see wars and famine that cause suffering to His creations.
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor. This is how I can love my neighbor. Jesus is the example. Our sight to the blind might be how we proclaim scripture in our lives. “Downtrodden” might be a generous tip or living wage to an employee. We can free someone from the sins of hate by our forgiveness. We have choices as do they.
We can be the love that God wants in their lives. In doing so we are loved more by God, if that is possible. Jesus never said it would be easy. He did say,” ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.” It is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
PS: Please Pray for Cancer victims and their caregivers. Pray for the conversion of Russia and the salvation of the Ukrainian and Russian people and their soldiers. Pray for the Holy Land. Pray for pea
