A good friend and I were talking about faith and how we understand the Bible. We disagreed about something, and he interrupted, saying that the way I believed was more suited to Grade 1s and children who were still playing with clay. 

I must confess, my faith is simple – probably because Jesus said we should believe like children, otherwise we’ll miss the bus. But the way my friend said it to me hurt me deeply. 

I couldn’t believe that someone would talk like that to someone else just because the other person understands things differently. That night, I was still trying to make sense of it, but then I just gave up. 

We need to be sensitive to each other’s differences. We don’t always have the only truth, but when it’s necessary to help others along the way. One big ingredient is needed – love. 

Without love, we easily hurt people. Without love, we say things that could’ve been left unsaid. Sometimes it’s so bad that there are just a bunch of corpses lying around after the conversation. That’s what happens when there is no love. 

And no, it’s not always a full-scale war. Sometimes it’s just a little nudge with a bit of bitterness or a harsh word, or sometimes silence. In small increments, lovelessness enters the relationship, and before long, people don’t like each other anymore. 

Love must always shine from us. Love must be the foundation on which we build all our relationships. Love must be the cement that holds the bricks of the relationship together, so that when the storms and wolves of life arrive, our relationship houses can remain solid. 

I just realised again: we humans are too weak to live by the commandment of love. It’s as if we try to start over again and again, just to slip up again around the next corner. 

It’s because we try to love in our own strength. I suspect the blow that our human love took from the fall is worse than we think and not enough to overcome everything. 

That’s why we must knock on God’s door. God knows what love is. He knows love for people who don’t deserve it at all. In an ultimate act of love, God was willing—indeed, compelled—to give His Son to die for the sake of those who put Him on the cross. And not just for them, but for every sinner on earth. 

That is love, true love, and it is only when we experience this love in our own lives that we can truly love others. Love, despite what the other does or says. Love, undeservedly, just as Jesus and God love us. 

Only when we are flooded with God’s selfless love can we truly love our loved ones, our friends, and even the stranger we meet along the way. 

May we love one another, as God loves us. Because then we will not be guilty: 20If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see?  

Scripture
1 John 4:7-21 

Reflection
Where are you missing the bus with love?
Where should you live to show more love?
Who needs more love from you? 

Prayer
Father, thank you for loving me so much. Thank you that I can learn from You what real love is. Help me to live it in every situation in my life. Amen.