loving others

May 25, 2010

We have won a degree of victory over self when we have learned to love God and others.

The Bondage Breakers

I've been reading the book mentioned above along with a companion book written by the same author. The above quote particularly stuck out to me. We all know the two greatest commandments: love God and love others, and we all know we're to triumph over the flesh and learn to die to self. Loving others is hard, because in truly loving others, we're to put them first, and we naturally put ourselves first, our desires, our comforts, our ambitions, etc. It is ingrained into our depraved human nature to do so. But from this quote, I've realized that loving others is so much more than just being nice to other people, it's really about dying to ourselves and not being selfish. When I think about the many times that my actions don't reflect love to others, I realize that often my actions are based on me putting myself first. When I get annoyed at that car who cut me off, am I not angry that the other driver cut me off? That they would do such a rude thing to me? Why do I not jump to pray for them? Or jump to giving them the benefit of the doubt? Maybe they have a loved one in the hospital and they're rushing there, etc. I guess it boils down to the fact that well I am the offended party. And even if there was no 'legit' reason to cut me off, should I be getting angry at all and letting Satan have the satisfaction of knowing that I'm harboring anger towards another person?

I feel that most of our annoyances and anger come because our comforts have been affected. Our actions do not reflect love for others because we love ourselves more than others. We get angry when a coworker who seems to not be as qualified as us gets the promotion that we didn't. Are we not angry because we didn't get that promotion and we feel that they don't deserve it? The way we perceive others affect the way we treat them as well:

As important as it is for you to believe in your true identity as a child of God, it is equally important that you perceive other Christians for who they are in Christ and treat them accordingly...If we view people as losers we will begin to treat them that way. If, however, we believe our brothers and sisters in Christ are redeemed saints, we will treat them as saints and they will be greatly helped in behaving as saints.

If we truly saw our brothers and sisters in Christ as children of God, wouldn't we treat them better? I find it is easy to love those in the church who already behave like saints. But the brothers and sisters that are still struggling, we get easily annoyed at because we lose sight of the truth: that they are children of God like us, and we should treat them as such.

I'm learning that loving those around me requires a sacrifice on my part. It's easy to love those who we feel are worth our love: family, close friends, etc. But when it comes to those who are difficult, whose personalities just happen to rub us the wrong way, we must remember that 'others' includes everyone and that love requires putting others first. Most importantly, we must remember that God loves us not for what we do, but who he has called us to be: his children, and in turn, we should love others not based on what they do or don't do, but because it is our calling to love others and that these are the very people God sent his only son to die for and redeem.