“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35
Have you done anything nice for someone you really like this week? Maybe you bought a thoughtful gift, took time to listen to a friend intentionally, or cooked a meal for a family member? If you have, that’s great, really. If you haven’t, maybe start there, but keep reading anyway. You did a nice thing for someone you like, awesome, but you know who else can do that? Pretty much everyone else, in every walk of life. Then there’s this Jesus guy we’re trying to follow, and He is radically DIFFERENT. He goes around saying things like “love your enemies” and “bless those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) I really love the way the Amplified Translation of scripture puts it: “But I say to you, love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Unselfishly seek the best or higher good for your enemies, how many of us can say we do that? How many of us can even say we want to do that, or could if we tried?
You may say to yourself, that’s cool, but I live in the 21st century, I have some people who annoy me, but I don’t have ENEMIES. And maybe you don’t, but if we’re supposed to seek the best for even our enemies, how much more should we love those whom we just find a bit annoying and kind of hard to love? (What? We can’t admit that some people drive you crazy? Get off your high horse and join us down here!) Loving people who aren’t easy to love is the exact thing that should set us apart from people who don’t know Jesus. Anyone can be nice and show love to people who are nice and easy to love. I hate to break it to you, but that’s not really that hard. If you show love to people who are easy to love, that’s great. I’m not saying to stop, but maybe don’t go patting yourself on the back too much because frankly, anyone can do that. But the Jesus way? The Jesus way says to love the people who are REALLY hard to love, the ones who know exactly which buttons to press, exactly how to get under your skin, and never in their life seem to have learned manners or social skills. You start showing love to THOSE people? Yeah, pretty soon people are going to start asking questions.
I know what you’re thinking, loving people who are hard to love, well, sounds hard. And guess what? It is! But if it were easy, everyone would do it, and you aren’t doing it on your own! I promise that when you start trying to love those who are difficult to love, the Lord WILL come alongside you to empower you to do so. Make it a point to pray every morning for God to help you love the ones you find hardest to love. If Jesus, fully God but still fully man, can look down at the people actively stabbing him in the side and ripping the skin from his back and say “forgive them Lord for they know not what they do” then what excuse do WE have for not loving people just because they’re a kind of rude or a bit of a jerk? The truth is, loving wildly and loving those who are most difficult to love is one of the things that most should separate us. If it sounds impossible, GOOD, that’s kind of the point. People should look at the way you treat people and say, “I don’t know how she does it.” So talk to that guy at work who seems a little aloof and only wants to talk about model trains, give a nice tip to the server who started out a bit rude, pray for the person who lied about you, bring a coffee to your coworker who cheated you out of the promotion, tell people only the best qualities about your crazy ex. Act with radical actions of love towards the people you least feel love for. Because anyone can be nice to the people who are easy to love, but you? You follow the Jesus way of livin’, and that way is radical, it’s different, and it stands out. Love is a verb, it’s a decision, and yes, it’s hard. But to follow Jesus is to love hard, even when it’s hard love.
If you enjoyed this devotional and are finding yourself in a hard season and could use some further reading on this topic, I highly recommend the book Unoffendable by Brant Hansen, which dives deeper into the topic. You can find it here:
If this devotional impacted you in a positive way, or if I can pray for you about anything, reply to this email and let me know! I would love to hear from you. To stay up to date on the latest and be a part of our community of renegade practitioners of the way of Jesus, follow me on Instagram at @casenpwatson
0 comments