Love Bearing!

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” – Ephesians 4:1-6 NIV

Normally, love is motivated by feeling. When people are being cared, they feel loved. When people feel loved, they feel accepted. They want to return the love back. We are motivated to receive love from people and give love to them. To put this simply, love is human nature. However, what happens if people are not feeling loved, or they got an argument between them about something? They turn their back from one another and they do not contact each other anymore. The worst case is that love turns into hate. To be honest, my human nature desires to hate everyone who keeps not replying to my messages. I felt that I am being loved by people from school but when school was over, I am not being loved by same friends.

Nevertheless, I believe the word ‘hate’ is not in parents’ dictionary. Parents love their children until the end, regardless of children’s rebellious behaviour. Parents’ love to their children does not only being motivated by feelings. I can tell you that I was a rebellious child to my parents before I became a Christian. Nonetheless, my rebellious manner did not stop my parents from loving me. They had been continuing to love and support me. As parents have been loving their children, God has been loving His children, also, as He is the heavenly father to human beings (Ephesians 4:6). God has every right to ignore and even destroy us if we do not come into faith in Him. However, He chose not to. Instead, He got rid of their death penalties by sending His beloved Son into the world (John 1:14) to crucify Himself on the cross for their death penalties (1 John 4:9-10). “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17).

Since God is humble, gentle and patient with us (Matthew 11:27-30; 2 Peter 3:8-9), we should learn and bring God’s loving gracious attitude into our hearts to manifest what God’s and Christian love look like towards others, as we have been created to be the image of God (1 John 4:11-12).

Contemplate what Jesus had done for us and ask yourself this question: “Have I learned what God’s love really is and am I able to distribute it freely to people?”