There was positivity in the air this evening as I headed back home from town. I noticed lots of lights on. People seemed busy as if there was hustle and bustle, a nice feeling of life behind doors. The people I would have expected to be blocking out the world were alive and well. And it was in the atmosphere as well.
As people who believe in and loves Jesus, it is easy to desire to only love our own friends and family. But Jesus said to us that we should love our enemies. “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28). What an expectation? We can block people out because we are not interested or we don’t like them, but the truth is that we are all accepted and loved by God, our heavenly father, and the reality of loving and accepting others remains a function of tapping from the love of Jesus Christ, which enables and makes it easy to transfer the love to others and also to forgive them even when they hurt us.
It also has a lot to do with forgiveness, which is also made easy as we experience a personal contact with a God, who, in His mercy, does not relate with us based on our sinful nature, as we have been saved by grace in Christ Jesus.
Someone told me the best way to give is to give to someone who cannot give back to you. This is very generous, and it is a precious kind of love. One of the America’s presidents, John F. Kennedy, once said ”Don’t ask what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” He had the right idea on this point, as giving and loving unconditionally are very crucial in our daily living and relating with others. The scripture also confirms this in Matthew 7:12…”So whatever you wish that others would do to you, also do to them, for this is the (meaning of) law and the prophets.”