By David ReayTuesday 27 Sep 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 1 minute
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection,a]">[a] and take delight in honoring each other. (NLT)
Loving other human beings is the highest and most challenging task we are given as human beings. It is easy to pretend to love; it is common to fall in love; it is natural to love what another human being can do for us. But real love is more than this.
If everyone were instantly loveable, love is no great problem. But we remain stubbornly imperfect, needing the love of others and yet making it hard for them to love us. We cling to our prejudices and resentments; we keep old wounds open and so hinder the giving and receiving of love.
Our own sorrows and pain can keep us at a distance from others. The American poet Henry Longfellow put it well: “If we could read the secret history of the world, we should find in each person’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
One of the great tasks of love, then, is to discern enough of such secret histories to let us see beyond the immediate unpromising appearances to what is really going on. God does it every moment of our lives and it allows him to love us come what may. Not being God, it doesn’t come quite as readily for us.
Blessings,
David