The life to which God calls us is a life full of his love, both in the human-divine relationship, but also in the human-to-human relationship. Love, joy and peace should fill our relationships to others. We are not to use people for our own ends, nor are we to subtly try to control or manipulate them. We do not love to be loved; we simply love because the person in front of us is a human being, made in the likeness of God and with whom we share in the very life of God Himself. We love as we love ourselves. This kind of sincere, selfless service is attractive and contagious to those who look on.
It’s a high calling, but not a painless one. When people hurt us, as they inevitably will, we do not take matters into our own hands. We forgive and let the Lord be the judge. This frees us to love even our enemies, as Jesus taught us. Regardless of what others do or don’t do, we simply do what is right and good.
Even in extreme circumstances, say in a prison camp, or in an abusive family where the people really don’t care about us and may even want to harm us, still we remember that God loves us and that that is somehow enough.
As we learn to love as Jesus taught us, the lies that support our postures of assault and withdrawal fade and are replaced with postures of embracing and releasing. The value of a human soul is tied up with our ability to love, so we cannot love unless we see the person’s true worth, which, in turn, is directly related to the value that we place on a human life. Our ability to see this eternal value in human life is determined by our willingness to receive the lavish love of God himself. He sees clearly and therefore places an eternal value on us, despite our sin.
In this series we will learn about what hinders us from rightly and fully relating to others.
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