“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them… Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other… Live in harmony with each other… Do all you can to live in peace with everyone.” (Rom.12:9-16)
Lord Jesus, a healed and healthy relationship takes two parties, but “loving unto you” takes one. For your glory and by your grace, that’s who we want to be, and how we want to love. Help us, for that often gets complicated, confusing, and costly.
What does it mean to love unto you? It means we love whoever is standing in front of us as though it’s you—as though you created them, Jesus, put your image and DNA inside them, and care for them a lot more than we do. It also means we take your words seriously—“Whatever you did for the least… you did to me” (Matt.25:40). We’ll only understand the wonder of these words when we’re with you in eternity.
Loving unto you also means we always start with loving anyone in response to how you have loved and do love us, Jesus. That’s probably the most import thing we can do. How soon we forget, and how plagued with unbelief we remain—you love us just as much as our heavenly Father loves you. Staggering, stunning, everything-changing, and more true than we realize.
So Jesus, show us the grudges we are holding, the hurts we are nursing, and the bitter roots we are fertilizing—not “pulling up” as you command (Heb.12:15). You aren’t calling us to pretend, denial, foolishness, or dishonesty. You are calling us to yourself—to come more fully alive to the “wideness, longness, highness, and deepness” of your love for us (Eph.3:18-21). Thank you, and So Very Amen.