“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
-John 13:34-35

We have to love others. We have to. Yet I know this is sometimes a confusing thing to do.

Every Sunday at church we say, “Turn to your neighbor and say, ‘God loves you, and so do I.’” I remember one Sunday after the service, I spoke with a somewhat analytical and quite thoughtful man who asked me a great question: “If I turn to someone in church and I say, ‘God loves you, and so do I,’ how can I be honest with that if I’ve never met this person?”

Now, if you understand agape love, you understand that you can say “I love you” to everybody. Why? Because Christian love, agape love, has nothing to do with your feelings. It has everything to do with your heart, which has everything to do with how you act.

Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to approach each encounter with others with your agape love. No matter what I feel, through you I will find the love to love others as you love me. Amen.

Reflection: Whom do you find it the hardest to love? How might you love that person with God’s agape love?