"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."
John 13:34
It's unimaginable how we think that the commandment to love one another is the easiest one. Sure, at first glance loving is not that hard. But to love just as Jesus has loved us? I don't think anyone will ever be able to meet that standard.
And you thought that the 10 Commandments were hard to keep. If there's any commandment we all generally fail to keep always, it's the commandment to love one another. Rick Warren once said in a blog post, "I've discovered that if people are not on my heart, they're on my nerves. If you don't have your kids in your heart, they get on your nerves. If you don't have your husband in your heart, he gets on your nerves."
Nowadays, so many people think that they have perfected the art of loving the unlovable. A person who fights for gender inequality, racism, poverty and human rights thinks he has aced "loving one another," but has he?
It's easy nowadays to love homosexuals, African Americans, poor people and abused women, but how much of an expert are you in loving the new breed of "unlovables?" Do you also love the bigot, the racist, the greedy and the oppressor?
I'm not talking about condoning their sin, but about showing compassion, praying for, blessing and wishing them well. Loving the unlovable has and always will be hard, and it's something we can never do on our own.
The only way we can keep growing in the area of loving the unlovable is to constantly expose and allow ourselves to experience the love of Jesus more and more. No one has experienced the love of God to the full yet, and you don't have to stop trying. There's always room to experience Jesus more and more.
Ephesians 3:19 says, "And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
Does anyone have the fullness of God in them yet? I don't think so, and no one ever will. Only Jesus walked this earth in full love. He wasn't always nice, but He was always loving to those who were void of love.
And ultimately, one thing we must all realise is that if there's anyone who is unlovable, it's us. We have all fallen short. We have all murdered the Son of God with our sins. But in our imperfection, God loves and gives grace still and asks us to draw near so that He may reconcile us back to Him. As we experience that love more and more, we will love the unlovable more and more.
Jesus is the ultimate antidote to hatred towards others and will ultimately cause us to love even the most unlovable of people.
