Happy New Year! While the year is still young, we want to talk about resolutions.
We all have them, don’t we? We promise ourselves to spend more time doing this and less time doing that. This year we’re asking you to consider adding this resolution to your list: love more.
Decide to Live a Life Filled with Love
We are not perfect, and sometimes we allow love to fall to the wayside. When we are feeling anxious, angry, or afraid we may speak from these dark places and forget that we are called to love above all.
It’s in these times that we must remember to love more.
We love our husbands and wives, our families, our neighbors; that love comes naturally to us, even if we may sometimes act otherwise. But in Galatians 3:28, Paul reminds us that God expects us to love more – even those whom we may find it harder to love.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
When we choose to truly love others despite differences, circumstances, and mood, we do a much better job of sharing the love of our Lord with others.
We Are Commanded to Love Not Discriminate
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:31
It seems that this very popular verse has been forgotten by many when it comes to actions.
On any given day you can see discrimination of the different. Religious group against religious group, political party against political party, individual against individual – all because their beliefs or actions differ from someone else’s.
Sometimes this discrimination is so radical and violent that it claims lives. Often times, though, it is more subtle than that – a cutting of one’s eyes, or a rude remark or gesture. Violent or not, anything that does harm is not love.
It is so easy to love what is familiar, but we are called to love all – and that can be hard!
It is hard to love what we don’t agree with or don’t understand. But we must make a decision to live a life full of love – and we’re asking you to make this commitment with us at the start of this New Year.
Love those who are different and, by doing so, show them you serve a loving God.
