1 John 3: 10-24: Love One Another

Tomorrow, my off-lectionary congregation will consider 1 John 3: 10-24. The message is familiar. Like much of the passages we hear proclaimed in our church, this one boils down to this command: “Love God and love one another.”

There are days when I’d prefer just to be given some eating restrictions and a money amount to donate and be done with salvation. But God is much more demanding than that. We are to love each other. It’s even more difficult than it sounds—we have to love even the most unlovable ones.

I tend to look at the behavior and attitude of others as impediments to loving them. But we’re not let off the hook. We must love even the horrible people among us; in fact, those people may be more in need of love than anyone else.

Why is it so hard to love each other? We don't want to get involved. We don't know what to say. We don't know how to act. So, we take the easier route and lose ourselves in our busy routines. We get so frantic with our schedules that we don't have time for ourselves, much less each other, much less God.

Or maybe our difficulty loving each other has different roots. Here’s a question that we pondered at last year’s Create in Me retreat: "What do we love that gets in the way of loving others?” Maybe it’s money. Maybe it’s the illusion that we’re in control. Maybe it’s wanting things to be the way they have always been. The answers are as varied as the humans asking them.

The solution doesn’t have to be vast. But figuring out how to love each other can be overwhelming. There are so many ways of loving each other that it can be hard to find our niche.

But we all have a place where we can start: in prayer. We can pray for those who have no one to pray for them. We can pray for the ones we love. We can pray for the people we know and the ones we don’t.

We can use our emotions as a call to prayer. Like the chiming of a bell, if we feel irritation, let’s pray for the person causing the irritation. If our heart overflows with happiness, let’s pray for the ones prompting the happiness. If we hear dreadful news, let us center ourselves with prayer before we consider the next word or action.

Let us center ourselves in prayer. Let us ask that God soften our hearts so that we can love each other the way God commands.