Who Should We Love?

Love is one of ingredients that keep the world moving: without it there would be lots of hate, prejudice, murder, oppression, victimization, etc. But as believers there is a standard set for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, which we must follow religiously if we’re to be like him.

Jesus instructed us to love certain categories of people in order to show to the world that we are his true disciples.

1.Love God: According to Jesus Christ, the first and greatest commandment is that we should love God with our heart, soul and mind (Matt 22:37-38; Mark 12:29-30). The love for God should supersede that which we have for any other person or being, because he deserves the number one place in our hearts.

2.Our neighbours: Jesus also said that next to loving God is that we should love our neighbours as ourselves (Matt 22:39-40; Mark 12-31). Why should we love our neighbours next to God? It is because if we love our neighbours we would not sin against them (Rom 13:9).

3.Strangers: Both the Old and New Testaments admonish us to love strangers because we were strangers, we are going to be stranger one day, and because there are rewards for loving them. (Lev. 19:34; Dut 10:19, Heb 13:2)

4.All men: The word of God advises us to do good to all men, especially those who are of the household of faith (believers). Doing good is not implying we should be moralistic; rather it is saying we should do good to them out of a heart of love. The good deeds should be motivated by true love for them (Gen. 6:10)

5.Our enemies: Jesus Christ also made it clear we should not limit ourselves to loving only those who love us and hating those who hate us, just like the pagans do. Rather he instructed us to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…“(Matt 5:43-48, Rom. 12:20-21, Ex. 32:4-5, Prov. 25:21-22).

We must therefore be able to see everybody just the same way our Lord Jesus sees them, and treat them the way he expects us to treat them. We should be lavish in giving out love because it is one of those attributes that differentiate us from pagans. When we love generously we show that we belong to Christ and that lives in us