Does it get tedious? Day 7

Please read Matthew 22: 34-40

An older man, travelling in an airplane began a conversation with the young man sitting next to him. The older man asked the young man whether he was traveling on business or pleasure. “Pleasure,” the young man replied. “I’m going back home from my honeymoon.” “Your honeymoon?” the older man asked, mystified- “Where’s your wife?” “Oh, she’s sitting all the way back. The plane was full, so we couldn’t get seats together.” The plane hadn’t started rolling yet, so the older man said, “I’d be happy to change seats with her so that the two of you can be together.” “That’s okay,” the young man replied. “I’ve been talking to her all week.”  That young man was already tired of his new wife.

Now these might be odd questions to ask - Do you ever get tired of the way God asks you to love others?  Is “The Greatest Commandment’ tedious- because some people are unlovable – especially your neighbor (Greek word plesion according to Christ, any man) in the church/fellowship? Is the second part of the greatest commandment tenable?

Dear brother and sister in Christ, are there times you wish that a certain person would leave your church? Or have you, on occasion, avoided/missed church because of a this person? Have you ever thought – ‘I don’t think Jesus knows how this guy in the church judges, criticizes and bothers me. Does Jesus realize this man is unlovable? How can I keep the “love your neighbor as yourself” coming to this man? How can this person be an image of God?

I have to confess, before I understood the Gospel and what God in His Mercy and Grace did for me through Jesus, I would try to avoid people who judged me and irritated me.   But now I realize, if Jesus were to use the same ruler that I used to judge others, I would still be a lost dead sinner. John emphasizes this in 1 John 3:14. Paul teaches the same in Romans 13:8-10 and Galatians 5:13-14. Jesus loves the unlovable – and that includes me. And he shows us in the Bible how to love others. So let’s meditate more on the love of Jesus to really learn how to love our neighbor.

Dear Jesus, without you loving me I would not have known how to love. Thank you for loving me and teaching me how to love. Amen.