Loving Others

Thanks to the internet and social media, we’re more connected than ever—but we’ve never felt more alone.

Millions of people wander the streets collecting constellations of virtual friends. At the same time, their hearts cry out from loneliness, as digital life does not fill their lack of genuine human connection.

At the Last Supper, Jesus told His disciples, “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” (John 13:34-35). The world celebrates consumption and self-centered display. God calls us to give of ourselves to bless those around us.

To love is to accept, include, forgive, value, and empathize with others. Without the practical language of affection towards our neighbor, religion is worthless. Without love for others, Christians become selfish messengers with fruitless good intentions. The apostle Paul wrote, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). The apostle John wrote, “If someone says, `I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (1 John 4:20-21).

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16, NRSV). As that love transforms us, we must pass it on—or it will die inside us.

From generously sharing our time and money, to answering bitterness with kindness, to a simple listening ear, we must put our love into action. Otherwise our Christianity is a sham.