Love One Another

“People who love each other fully and truly are the happiest people in the world. They may have little, they may have nothing, but they are happy people. Everything depends on how we love one another.”  

– Mother Teresa

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

- St. Peter, 1 Peter 4:8

Back when I was in college at a secular university, I took a public speaking class. Following one of my speeches for the class, my professor asked me if I would be willing to do my speech in a county public speaking contest. The speech was on love.

I entered the contest, delivered my speech, and won… second place! The speech actually went really well. I felt good about my delivery and my content. The judges really had only one critique that factored into my score (and possibly kept me from winning the contest). That critique… I used too many Bible verses. Yes, that is what they said. But, candidly, I could not imagine talking about love without referencing God’s love and His commands for us to love one another. If it cost my first place in a public speaking contest, so be it.

God is love, and because He loves us, He commands to love one another:

Jesus said in John 13:34-35,

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

I recently read an article from the Washington Post that broke my heart. It shared that since fans have returned to high school sporting events following the pandemic, behavior has been alarmingly bad. Racist epithets, foul language, obscene gestures, physical fighting and sexually demeaning language have become commonplace. High school athletes are hearing things from adults and students alike that are reducing them to tears and making it impossible for them to continue competing. Some schools have had to ban fans from attending games, others have had their seasons shut down by state high school associations for their inability to control their fans. One veteran school superintendent in Massachusetts went on record to say, “It’s a microcosm of society in general. People’s behavior is dysregulated. It’s, unfortunately, as bad as I’ve seen it.”

Researchers are blaming it on several factors: 1) The stress of the pandemic, 2) Students have not been in school, and therefore have not experienced structure and routine in learning how to behave, and 3) (the saddest reason of all) Students have been watching adults over the last two years behave in ways that are not upstanding.

Friends, if it is going to change, it begins with us. Someone has to set the example of how to love one another, even those who don’t seem deserving of our love.

We must love one another as God first loved us, for He loved us when WE were not worthy of His love.

I love the way Pastor Rick Warren put it,

“God teaches us to love by putting some unlovely people around us. It takes no character to love people who are lovely and loving to you.”

As Mother Teresa put it,

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

As we prepare to move into 2022, may we be a people of God who show the world what it really looks like to love one another.

Pastor Ken

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