“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12
Please help me out because I just don’t get it. God gave us ten commandments that can be summarized by two: LOVE him and LOVE others. In LOVE, God sacrificed his only Son for our sins. And the night before he was beaten and hung on a cross — for us! — Jesus gave us a simple commandment to LOVE.
Paul writes to the Corinthians that of faith, hope, and love, the greatest of the three is LOVE. He spells out in detail exactly what love is — it’s patient, kind, not rude or boastful, not resentful, etc. Paul wasn’t writing Corinthians 13 for a wedding (since I think I have heard it read at every Christian wedding I have attended!), he was writing for how we all should live — in LOVE!
John sums it all up in one simple thought…
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16
So, what is unclear about all this? Why don’t we get it? I’m watching candidates from both political parties go out of their way to prove they are deep-in-the-faith Christians. Then, they sling personal mud at each other. It’s one thing to debate political differences on the public stage; however, it’s another to simply spew personal hatred. Certainly, whatever you call it, it’s not LOVE.
We revel in reality TV that is built on discord and even hatred. We can’t get enough of survivors, cooks, partiers, housewives, and now even golfers who hiss and fight each other — and the more animosity the better.
I don’t get it. God — the very definition of perfect love — has given us a very clear message but we simply ignore it. The Bible gives us more explicit direction on what love is and how we should live in love. However, we obviously don’t understand — or don’t want to understand. Like the Israelites, we are wondering in an endless desert of anything but love.
One of the Real Secrets to Life is LOVE. If something is not quite right in your life — now or in the future — ask yourself if you are living in love, as God commands. You don’t need to be a holy roller, you simply need to put others before you. Just like Jesus did with you. It’s not that hard and you’ll be amazed at the results.
Loving leads to greater happiness, peace, and fulfillment in your life. Anything else is a dead-end.
The Real Secrets to Life™ 