Go into any church and you’re bound to hear someone talk about love, or loving others. Love is obviously something really important in the Christian faith, as well as lots of other different religions and groups. But what does loving others really mean, and why should we do it? The reason why is pretty simple, we should love because we are and want to be loved. We’re all a little different in our own ways, but one thing that every human being wants is to be loved. That’s why Jesus and tons of other people in scripture talk about it all the time. In Romans 13:8 Paul says that we should love, because by loving everyone, we “fulfill the law”. But what does that mean to us?
Have you ever felt like religion sometimes, in some places, seems like it’s just a big list of do’s and don’t’s? That’s kind of what the law is. In the Old Testament it was a big list of traditions and things that the Jews did and didn’t do as a part of their faith. But then Jesus came along and changed everything by showing us what God really wanted (love). Romans 13:8 is Paul talking about that. He’s saying that the goal of Jesus’ followers shouldn’t be to fulfill a list of of do’s and don’ts, but that we should just love everyone, and that covers everything.
But it’s kind of hard to love everyone when we haven’t talked about what love is. Jesus describes it as patient and kind. He tells us that it doesn’t demand it’s own way, and that it never dishonors other people. He even goes as far as to say that true love doesn’t keep a record of our wrong choices. So according to Jesus, to love others means to be patient and kind with them, to not demand our own or to dishonor other people. And (this is the hardest part), to keep no record of wrongs (this DOESN’T mean we have to subject ourself to abusive behavior, which is far too often how this quote gets used by people in charge). It seems nice, but also really difficult to actually do. That’s because it is. Loving everyone can be really tricky, especially when people sometimes don’t make it very easy. But Father isn’t expecting perfection, He just wants us to do our best to live like Jesus. So it’s okay if you can’t do that 100% of the time, we all have days or people we struggle to get along with, and God loves you anyway. That’s the great thing about the Fathers love, it extends to all of us, regardless of race, gender, sexuality or religion, even when we mess up.
Being a Christian isn’t about rules or checklists of things to do and not to do. It really is as simple as just doing our best to love all of humanity. After all, God does. “If they aren’t your brother in faith, then they’re your brother in humanity” - Imam Ali