Loving The Unlovable
God expects us to show His kind of love to all men, including those we feel do not deserve it those who live their lives in ways we don’t agree with; those who have been mean to us; those who regard us as their enemies and are actively causing us pain. No one should be exempted from our love.
God set a good example for us in what He did through Christ: For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:7-10)
The above Scripture shows that God’s love towards us was most clearly shown in the giving of His Son for us when we were still sinners; when we were still His enemies. We did nothing to deserve His love, yet He so abundantly showered it on us. He sought our good and gave His best to secure it. That’s true selfless love in action!
Having become beneficiaries of this love God, expects us to extend it to others. In the same way that we did not have to deserve His love before He gave it, we do not have to expect others to deserve our love before we give it. We choose to love them because God first loved us and also because God loves them as He loves us. They may have several weaknesses and ungodly attitudes but God still loves them and so
should we.
In Matthew 5:44-46 our Lord Jesus said: But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
How we respond to those who mistreat us show the quality of our Christianity. Those who respond like other men who do not know God, show that their Christianity is still shallow. Those who have truly embraced the spirit of the gospel will choose to love those who hate them. They will be willing to pray for those who persecute them asking for God’s mercy upon them, like Jesus prayed on the cross. That is true Christianity. May God’s grace continue to prompt us to be like Christ always.
