Love: one little four-lettered word. How much difference can it truly make? We use this term too often in everyday life to show our admiration for objects, people, articles of clothing, music, and even food. It can mean anything from a strong liking to a life-long commitment and the word gets thrown around so easily. So, what does it actually mean to love, to show love, and to treasure love? 

In my efforts to try to understand everything that’s been circulating the media recently and to know how Christ would want me to respond, I kept coming to John 13:34-35 which says, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples,” which is strange because there seems to be much more hostility out there than love these days. It is chilling to think about all the sin that goes on in the world that we don’t even see, but that the one, true, holy God sees and is even heartbroken over. It’s hard for us not to be heartbroken over what we see even as humans. However, this little word ‘love’ changes things drastically. 

Although it is right to feel the need to do something and respond, in all honesty, any sort of impact that we can have in this world won’t make the kind of difference that we all desire. While we can make a temporal difference during our time here on earth, only Jesus can truly reconcile us all in the end. As believers we are called to stand up for injustice and fight for those who are the most vulnerable. Yet somehow that still doesn’t often feel like enough. 

Humans will always be imperfect, impulsive, and self-righteous which should cause us to rely on God even more because without Him, there is no right or wrong and there is no justice. Who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong without some sort of standard to measure it? For believers, we have a moral compass because of what Jesus has modeled and taught us, but non-believers don’t have the same standard of right or wrong because it’s all subjective without a standard (God). 

Ephesians 1:9-10 tells us, “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ – which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.” Boy, does this sound AMAZING right now or what? 

Christ creates life where there was once death. He conquered the grave when He died on the cross and He lives again so that we might partake in that as well. “He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News” (2 Timothy 1:10). Jesus conquered death; so shouldn’t we SCREAM this from the rooftops?! 

One of the many things that is so remarkable about God is how accessible He is. He is there for everyone, at all times, and in all places. Jesus came to earth to help the sick; not just the healthy. In a world where accessibility is getting increasingly harder to grasp, Jesus is such a breath of fresh air because He breaks down every barrier and division. 

Although we don’t fully know God’s plans and purposes, we do know that, “Both Gentile and Jew who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:6). He broke the power of death so that not only do we have eternal life and hope in Him, but also so all who believe have unending access to God. 

Now, God didn’t promise an easy life, nor an easy task of sharing this amazing news, and Paul even writes in 2 Timothy, “With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News.” There are many times, especially in light of recent events, we can feel tired and bogged down by the weight of how broken our world is and the immensity of the task before us as Christ followers to bring about justice because of our identity in Jesus. But, with all earnestness, while we are still on this broken, sinful earth, we must try, knowing that in the end, God will truly make everything right. 

So, as John 13 tells us, we as Christ followers should stand out because of our love. If there is anything that we can truly do in this time, it is to love everyone around us more and more each and every day, even in the smallest of ways. What are some ways that you can show love to the people around you today? Even during a pandemic and our divisive culture, how can we show others that we care?

One of the biggest ways to love those around us is to have compassion. Often love and compassion are equated with each other, but I believe love creates immense compassion. Compassion is defined as, “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” Compassion is the action which comes out of love and I think THAT is truly what’s missing in society right now. Those of us who are God’s children have an obligation to clothe ourselves with compassion. Sharing the Good News of Jesus is being the most sympathetic of others’ distress with wanting to alleviate it. God loves us so much that He has conquered death for us, He is always accessible, He is fighting on our behalf, and He will truly make all things right in the end. We can show that we care for the well-being of others and love each and every person that God has created in His image by sharing what He has done for them. 

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (Eph. 3:19). I pray that everyone reading this will feel the love of God in tangible ways today, and feel the call and the urge to share this love with others. I pray that the Lord would give me eyes to see in areas I am blinded and to give me supernatural understanding for things I don’t understand in order to be the most compassionate I can be. 

One little four-lettered word can make a world of a difference in people’s lives, when it is an outpouring of the most perfect love there is which only comes from God. “In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Colossians 3:11-12). 

May God’s perfect love stir us to not only share it with others, but to stir in our own hearts an overabundant outpouring of compassion in our own lives to alleviate the distress of others to bring hope and life in the darkness. 

“This is what the Lord God Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other’” (Zechariah 7:9-10).

With Love,
Hannah