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Growing in Love

by Jerry Ousley  
4/03/2015 / Christian Living

Love in the English language is a word with many meanings. Of course it means to have affection for another person, but there are different degrees of love that in some other languages have a word of their own. For instance, we have a romantic love for our spouse. We also love our children, but not romantically it is a different kind of love. We love our siblings but once again this is a different type of love. We love our parents which is another type of love.

Early in our marriage my wife taught me something about love. We had a disagreement over - whatever I couldn't tell you what it was now because well, it's just been too many years ago. I can hardly remember what I had for supper last night so I certainly can't remember the specifics about a fuss thirty years ago! Whatever it was about when we resolved it I told her that I loved her. She didn't respond. I asked, "Don't you love me too?" She said, "Yes, I love you but right now I don't like you very much!"

What I learned from that experience is that it is possible to love others whether we like them, or what they are doing, or not. I always wondered how we were supposed to love our enemies that was a tough one! But Jesus told us to love our enemies. What Deb taught me was that we can feel compassion and an affection of some degree toward all, even our enemies, but that doesn't mean that we have to like them and condone their actions.

To be a successful Christian we've got to persevere. Part of perseverance is growing in love. Aren't children great? At their young age they are so completely honest about things. If they like you they have no problem in showing it. And if they don't like you they have no problem displaying that either. Somehow, as we get older we lose that simplicity. We learn to hide our feelings. We can walk right up to a person we really don't like and pretend that everything's okay. Afterwards, when that person has left, we may have more to say about the matter but we conceal our feelings to their face. I suppose there is a place for that, but in most cases wouldn't it be better for both parties to get the difference out into the open where both can work on getting rid of it? I guess that's just too simple.

Especially among Christian brethren, we are to love. In John 13:34-35, Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." What a passage of scripture! In the Ten Commandments, Moses had told them to love their neighbors. Over the centuries the definition of "neighbor" had to be clarified. Jesus put the ultimate clarification on it with the story of the Good Samaritan. That's a good commandment but Jesus took it even further, stating that He was giving us a new commandment. It was one specifically to those born-again; those who were believers those who had come to Him and had defined themselves as Christians. He told us to love each other as He had loved us. He also said that this was the witness to the world that we were His disciples if we loved each other.

I know that I talk about this a lot but in this modern age believers need to be reminded of this more and more. We see Christian organizations fighting and bickering between themselves, even to the point of taking each other into courts of law. We see individual believers fussing and feuding. We see congregations torn asunder sometimes over the pettiest of problems. Folks this isn't a display of love. If the Church needs to learn a lesson today it is the lesson of how to love each other as Christ loves us. We must grow in love. It takes perseverance. It isn't something that comes easy. It is work and sometimes very hard work. But we can do it because our Lord doesn't tell us to do something then just leave us hanging. He's right there helping us along each step of the way. We can love each other. We can love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can love our neighbor and yes, we can love our enemies, but only through and with the help of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Strive to grow in love and you will be a successful Christian.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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