Loving the unlovable

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” -Matthew 5:43-45a I want to be the kind of person that if I’ve had the worst day ever, someone has totally keyed my car, or talked badly about my loved one, or was rude to me at the market, I cannot think so much about myself. Maybe I’ll feel angry. Of course, I’ll be angry. But I will take a moment and just feel bad for this person, to have empathy for this person, to recognize that in some ways this person is already in hell, that they’re living in a life that is completely separated from God’s love and power. And that is why Christian love is a miracle. Christian love is a miracle

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” -Ephesians 2:10 It may seem that most sermons are about encouraging us to “try harder.” Right? You may hear, “You must love people, and this is how you love people. Now, try your hardest and stop messing up.” But, the miracle about Christian love is that it’s actually not about trying harder. Although love is entirely about what you do and not what you feel, trying harder isn’t enough to get you there. The reason we recite our Creed of the Beloved every single week is that, unless you live from a place of God’s love and God’s grace, it’s not about your works, it’s not about your trophies, and it’s not about your reputation. Until your identity is grounded not in what people think and say, but one hundred percent

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” -Psalm 55:22 You don’t have the power to love people all the time, especially your enemies, if you don’t feel at home in God’s love right now. That’s why that is so powerful. Sometimes people criticize our Creed of the Beloved, saying, “Well, it’s like you’re saying what I do doesn’t matter,” yet it’s the exact opposite. What we do matters the most! But we can’t do what Jesus does until we find our hearts completely located in God’s love. Unless we abide in Jesus Christ and abide in his love, we lack the power to love others when it matters most. Your spiritual health is exactly proportional to how much you love God and, thereby, are able to love people. Of all the things that you ought to measure as a