“Do unto others…” is a prominent scripture that is used in giving advice, or living by a life motto, or even in dealing with difficult people. But when we really look at how we treat others, do we treat them they way their actions may deserve, or do we do unto others as Jesus has done unto us?
Before I get too deep into this, I want to make known that I have failed at loving others correctly more than I have succeeded. I have offered hurt and have been hurt and I have been self-righteous in situations more than I care to admit. On the flipside, those mistakes have humbled me in ways I don’t think could have happened otherwise, and I don’t know that I would change it. I don’t know that I could. They have taught me more and more how to love like Jesus.
God specifically told us to do 2 things: 1. Love God; and 2. Love People. I don’t know about you, but number 1 is a lot easier than number 2. Number 2 gets messy. I mean really messy. And yet….God calls us to do this only second to loving Him. That makes it a pretty big deal.
So how do we love like Jesus? Because he doesn’t call us to love only the loveable. He calls us to love EVERYONE. Even the ones who persecute and reject us. The ones who are broken and bound by addiction. The ones who hurt us or someone we love. The ones who think they know it all. The ones who are sensitive. The ones who are hard. God’s love isn’t conditional, ours shouldn’t be either.
On one of our more recent trips to Kansas City, Katie was unexpectedly admitted into the hospital after another bout of pancreatitis. As I was unpacking our things to do laundry in the parent room, my finger caught something quite sharp in the pocket of Katie’s backpack. And that quite sharp thing was a fishhook. Yep, barb and all was in my pointer finger on my right hand. To this day, I still don’t know why Katie had it in there but she does have a thing for fishing…. Anyway, I rushed to the nurses station with tears in my eyes just to be told I had to go down to the ER. Yep, that’s right. I had to go to the ER, when I was already in the hospital, to get a fishhook removed while my sick child waited upstairs. I was frustrated to the point of tears.
As Kris and I walked into the ER, it was a warzone. My husband likes to say that the ER at Children’s Mercy was the most dangerous place in Kansas City that night, and I am sure he was right. I am not talking about physical violence, but biological warfare…oh yes. Kris and I sat down as they ran through triaging each patient and just watched the amount of mothers with babies in that ER. Across from us sat a young woman, I would guess to be in her early twenties, and her 18 month old son. It was like clockwork every 15-20 minutes that poor baby had some kind of fluid coming out both ends. Kris and I watched this for AT LEAST 3 hours. This poor mother, running to the bathroom with her son after he had thrown up and soiled himself, to clean them both up and then come back and clean up the waiting room where they sat. As I sat with my hooked finger above my heart, all I could think was, Isn’t there anyone here to help this woman?!
Even the volunteers at the kiosk did minimal to assist. I had had enough. So I walked up to the registration desk and asked for some Cavi Wipes and gloves and marched back to that momma. As she took her son into the bathroom for the umpteenth time to clean them both up, I heard my husband say to her, “Hang in there, mama,” and I proceeded to wipe vomit and diarrhea off of the ER floor with my one good hand. Why do we do this? Because we are called to love like Jesus. The hook in my finger didn’t matter because maybe God placed us there to pray and to help, regardless of our current trial.
It was a lesson in loving like Jesus.
Persistent, gentle, sacrificial love outweighs hurt, rejection, addiction, pride, sensitivity, and persecution almost every time. As we live out our calling and purpose in Christ, it is easy to get frustrated and want to give up. How do we live up to loving as Jesus did? Well, the first step is knowing we can’t love like Jesus if we don’t strive to live like Jesus. He was the example set for us and it is part of our calling to live that way knowing we will fall short. Living like Jesus requires us to let go of ourselves to attain the grace, peace, and love that is waiting for us. If we rest in Christ, loving others like he has loved us becomes a lot easier.
So again, how do we love like Jesus?
- Love unconditionally, without judgement. Don’t preach fire and brimstone at confessed sins and don’t turn your nose up in judgement. As God has loved us, so we must love others. John 3:16 & 1 Corinthians 13:13
- Love sacrificially. Love others to the point of giving up self. Romans 5:8.
- Love with truth. So often we find ourselves tolerating something because we perceive it to be an act of love. BUT IT ISN’T. Love is standing in truth for the sake of someone else. 1 Corinthians 13:6 & Ephesians 4:15.
- Love when its hard. You don’t always know the hardships that others bear, so love them when its hard and love them even more when they seem unlovable. 1 Peter 4:8.
No, sometimes love isn’t easy. Sometimes anger, fear, sadness, complacency, and quitting are much easier emotions to handle. But these emotions are nowhere near as productive as the ACTION of love. Deep, abiding, truthful love is what changes the people around us, as well as changes the spirit within us.
If we want to see lives changed, we have to stop offering up tolerance, fear, and judgement and replace it with the kind of love that we have been shown. Today my challenge for you is to think of someone that you find it difficult to simply like, then pray for that person and keep praying for them until you see a softening in your own heart. I have had to do this more times than I care to admit, but I can tell you it works.
feed yourself, girl with love, compassion, understanding, and most of all with Jesus. He thought you were worth dying for.
feed yourself, girl 