I remember back to high school. We had a really tight knit circle of friends who was always together. One of my buddies started dating a girl and none of us liked her. We didn’t really have a solid reason she just wasn’t one of “us”. My buddy really liked her and I remember when he came to us and said, “Listen she means a lot to me and if you love me then you should love her.” Our attitude changed after that which is good because they are still married to this day. In fact most of us would now say that we like her more than our buddy. The Bible talks about that when it comes to loving God’s children. Let’s look at it together in I John 2.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. 9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

God says that if we love Him then we should love His children because they matter to Him. It is really like He says to us the very same thing my buddy said to our friend group all of those years ago. In fact Jesus tells us that loving God and loving others is the whole of the law summed up. There will always be people in our circles that are a little more difficult for us to love than others. Next time you find yourself struggling in such a situation imagine God coming to you and saying that person is important to Him so it’s important that we love them as well.

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave