Easy or hard?

Julene Kapao

There are two texts in Scripture that have always leapt out at me. Both came directly from the mouth of Jesus and both are deeply challenging:

• "But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" Matthew 5:44*
• "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" John 13:35

Love is easy.

Love is easy especially when you like the people you are supposed to love. Love comes from the deep parts of our souls where we have empathy for, kind feelings about and want to be with the people we love.

Love may not be that easy.

This is where I began to feel challenged. I get the whole "love" thing. I love my husband, my kids, my job...and of course I love God.

But is that enough to make John 13:35 relevant in my life? Will people really say, "Wow, Julene loves her family really well, she must be a Christ follower"? Or is there a little more to this whole idea?

Love is not easy.

There is a whole lot more to loving. I believe that when we put these two texts together we see what it is all about - loving our enemies and being kind to those who persecute us truly shows we are Christ's disciples. Now
that is not easy.

The coworker who constantly works against you; the family member making undermining comments; a judgmental woman in church; a stranger making offensive gestures.

I am to love them too?

Love is hard.

I doubt Jesus would have spent so much energy talking about loving the hard to love if it weren't important to Him.

Maybe this is part of becoming more like Christ and what Paul meant in Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."

Love is growth.

By learning to love those around me, both the lovely and the unlovable, I am challenged to see them as Jesus sees them. When I see any individual through the eyes of Christ I see His love for all the lost and hurting people of the world, including me.

It is the way we live, interact with and treat others that truly demonstrates who we are connected with. In Philippians 2, Paul continues to talk about relationships and unity saying, "so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe (verse 15)."

I'd love to be a shining star in my community, bringing love to all I come in contact with, even those I don't really like.

* All Bible quotations are from the New International Version.

This article was first published in Going Places (April/May 2009), a newsletter produced by Adventist Women's Ministries in the South Pacific.

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