Love, Care and facebook

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35

There are a few definitions of love, but how does love apply to the church? My church. I believe in loving, and being loved. This is one of the greatest joys in this life, and cannot be faked! Everyone, without exception, wants to be loved, but we are not all able to love, or so it would seem sometime. I think this can spill over into our church life. We want to be loved in some ways, and are happy to receive anything which makes us feel wanted, or important. However, the other side of the coin is that we can’t always return the compliment, at least adequately. We live in a one way world of love!

The verse at the top is the oft quoted one, but it follows right after these words of Jesus, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” So it follows that our love has to copy the love of the Lord, and that can sometimes be a one way street from Him to us. I see this as a bit of ‘give and take’. Jesus gives, and we take, and we are happy to leave it at that. Loving back is a high calling, and I go back to my first thought that we all want to love, and be loved. God gives His love to us, mostly on a one way basis, and we in turn, are happy to accept this love from God, and we also take the same from our friends. How about giving back some love?

I do understand that this is an uphill struggle, but how about starting with something easier? Caring! We can all do that, can’t we? The trouble with both love and caring, is that they take us out of our comfort zones, and make us vulnerable. Coming from the West of Scotland, I was brought up in an environment where people were not so soppy as to show their feelings. That even applied to family life, and yes, church family life too. We can be happier to give some slight sarcasm to our friends, in the hope it will be interpreted as caring! Huh?? If Christians don’t show the way, who will? We are commanded to love one another. It’s not a suggestion, so can we get on with it please! Facebook might help  so look for ‘Port Glasgow Nazarene’ (that’s a hint!)...