The more we understand God's love for us, the more we love others. His love for us is not meant for us to keep and live on our own. His love for us compels us to love and accept others. One of the sins that divide people is prejudice against other people. Prejudice is our preconceived opinions against others based on race, skin color, belief, religion, caste, gender, political views, social class, etc. Consequently, prejudice makes us look down on others and reject them based on our thoughts. Sadly, the church of Christ is not immune to prejudice. Throughout the history of the church, many believers were caught up in discriminating against others based on skin color and race; thus, it brought shame in the name of our Lord Jesus. Jesus came to abolish prejudices from our hearts. 1 John 4:16 says, "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
Loving others different from us is important to our relationship with God. 1 John 4:8 says, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." One of the ways to examine our hearts, if we love others or not, is how we think of them. Do we see them through the lens of God's love? We need to understand that our love towards others begins in our love relationship with God. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Loving others is difficult because of our sinful nature. And this is why we need the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and empower us to love others. We can overcome our prejudice through the love of Christ. Let the love of Christ begins in our hearts, and let us live it out in this world.
Let us continue to grow in God's love. When we go to work, school, or wherever we go today, let us look at others the way God sees them. Let us remind ourselves of God's common love for unbelievers. And for believers, we need to remind ourselves that they are our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Let us abide in the love of Christ today, and let God's love transforms us.
Ask yourself these questions for application: (Think through carefully and meditate on the questions while answering them, and let the Spirit of God speak to you) Why is it important to love others? How does my love for others affect my relationship with God? What should I do if I am struggling to love and accept others?
Write down all the worries you face today and lift them up to God.
Prayer:
Father in Heaven, you are the God of love. I am saved because of your love. I understand you want me to walk in love, so please continue to teach and empower me with your Spirit to love others. Please remove any prejudice in my heart and replace them with your love. Please help me to see others the way you see them. In your name Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen.