It is said, ‘It’s easy to love the lovelies’, and how
very true that is! It is the ones who do not agree with us, who seek to hurt
others, who we consider toxic, who do not look or live according to our
standards and views that are not the easy or convenient for us to love.
The commandment to love one another must be the
hardest one to live for most of us and most of us justify our failure to live
up to it in one way or another (John
15:12). Consider though the other side of the coin: “He that loveth not his
brother, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye
know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:14,15).
Those are hard words to swallow but logic prevails: if God is love, and we
aspire to be gods like Him, how can we ever reach such a station if love is not
in us? Can we be ‘loveless’ gods when love is so obviously central to the character of deity (1 John 4:7-11)?
When the Saviour said to His disciples, “love one
another” he added an incredibly high standard: “as I have loved you” (John
15:12). This means that Christ loved those around Him without prejudice. I
wager that among them were also the ‘unlovelies’…..such as Judas.
The standard is high but it is achievable, because of
the example set before us: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid
down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1
John 3:16). We hear of heroic acts where people have sacrificed their own lives
to save another. These acts are usually motivated by love for the person the
sacrifice is given for. Imagine though giving up your life for someone you
cannot abide. Someone who has hurt you, your children, your family. Even
someone whose personality and character you cannot stand. But this is not
required of us. What is required is sacrifice out of compassion which propels us
to aid a brother in need (1 John 3:17). This is all that is asked of us to earn
the love of God to dwell in us.
Very often we say, ‘oh they are not worth it!’. What
is being said in reality is that such a person is of no worth. When on the
other hand, we can give of ourselves to those we consider to be the unloveable we are on the path to godly love. This godly love
was what prevented the Saviour from ever considering anyone not being worthy of
His attention, His care, His love and ultimately His sacrifice. We are told
that the worth of a soul is great in the sight of God (D&C 18:10). Imagine
if there was a proviso in His atoning sacrifice which excluded you by name. How would you feel? It would crush even the most odious person if
he was not atoned for. This was unthinkable to the Saviour as He hung upon the
cross. The ‘unlovelies’ were gathered into His bosom as much as the lovely
ones. No sinner, no thief, no murderer, no liar, no adulterer, no atheist was
excluded. Such is the heart of the man who is The Truth, The Light, and The
Way. (John 14:6)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art AI generated)
No comments:
Post a Comment