According to society, love is the most powerful force in the universe. What kind of love is that: romantic love, familial love, friendly love? Society has this blind view of what true love is, and in the Christian faith, the love that God has for you is the unconditional love that you can give everyone else.
So, how can you love by the Christian faith? Sometimes certain religions point us towards society’s idea of what love is. Depending how one looks at it and how one presents this love, it can be wrong and immoral when really this love can be a truly beautiful thing. A Christian lives by faith and faith alone, and that is how one loves unconditionally like God did when He gave His only Son to die and save all of our sins so we can enter His Kingdom.
Why is it so hard to see and feel God’s love sometimes? When we go through trials and tests, it’s hard for us to believe that He has predestined our lives to become something so great and beautiful to glorify Him. Jeremiah 29:11-13 states, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.'” When we seek God during all seasons and trust in Him in everything He does, we will seek His love throughout our minds, hearts, and our souls.
When we learn more about God’s love for us, we begin to love others this way. What does that love look like? In a romantic relationship, we want to love our partner like Christ loves His Church. Christ laid down His life for the Church just like we should for our significant others. We need to stop looking for someone to worship us, but worship God. Let’s stop centering our lives around each other and begin centering our relationships towards God and Christ’s faith and love in us. Marriage is a truly beautiful thing when you focus on God before you love him or her.
Now for the hard part, and the most important love in the Christian faith; how do we love our enemies? The golden rule has always been “love your neighbors as much as I love you,” but how easy is that really to do? Well, God has an unending, forever providing love for us, so we should exert that onto everyone around you, even your enemies, right? We should never exert hate, for hate will not earn you a spot in Heaven. We must put our trust in Him that He will supply us with the patience (let’s be honest, we don’t have a lot of that today), the grace, and everything else that we need to love everyone around us as He has loved us. It takes a lot of faith, but In the end, the growth in our hearts is worth the fight.
There are all different kinds of love, though I’ve only touched on a few, and they require God’s unconditional love and our faith in Him to pursue in the life of a Christian. If we live by God, our relationships will be changed by love and our hearts will grow by the Spirit as we inch closer to His Kingdom. For when we reach Heaven, we will attain a happiness that is beyond anything we will ever experience in our lifetime.
