No Exceptions 

   The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” (1 John 4: 21) 

   There is no “unless” is the scripture above.  We are not to love others unless they are not who we think they should be; we are not the judge.  We can’t decide that another is not worthy of our love because of their sins; we too are sinners but still loved by God.  We are told to love, and love is what we are to do.

   The command to love is one that many people, myself included, struggle with.  How am I to love someone who abuses children or someone who beats their spouse.  Is one like Hitler excepted from this commandment; should he be?  We all know people who, in the eyes of the world are simply not loveable.  How do we as Christians reconcile that fact?

   Love is a word that implies many things and is misused in many ways.  The love we experience is not the love that we are intended to know; that love was lost with original sin.  What is left is emotion and feeling that may or may not be related to true love.  We love based on what we see on the surface and in the actions of others.  Even to the point of allowing appearance to determine whether another is loveable

   God loves because He knows what we are created to be and what we can become.  He sees our sins and knows of our wrongs.  But He also knows that is not why we were created or what we are to be.  Just as we see the wrongs that those in our own families do, He sees the wrongs in the humanity He created.  But just as we still love and pray for our family members who have gone astray, God loves all who have left His way and reaches out to them in mercy and forgiveness, calling them to return to Him.

   The love we are to have for others is the love of one of God’s children.  In some ways God perhaps mourns for His children who have rejected Him, but He will never stop loving them and seeking their reconciliation.  That is the kind of love we must have for others if we are to honestly say we love God. 

Your love is eternal.

It knows no bounds.

You desire to reconcile all to Yourself.

Help us to love as You love. 

Amen