Defined by love!

As I grow up I’m assured of my identity and who I am in Christ but how do the people around me perceive me?  Jesus told His disciples in John 13 that in the same way that He loved them, they are supposed to love one another. Further adding He said, “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples – when they see the love you have for each other” (The Message).

I have been called to love my neighbors, but wait who exactly is my neighbor?

Neighbor is my obnoxiously loud and uncouth person living next door,

Neighbor is the inhumanely demanding boss,

Neighbor is the egocentric bully, who cherishes picking on me,

Neighbor is the impatiently furious store clerk yelling at an “innocent” me,

Neighbor is the biased coach who preferred an amateur over an “experienced” me in fact my neighbors also include the lot for whom I’m as inconspicuous as a fly on the wall. My neighborhood also comprises of those who didn’t believe in me or in my dreams and who never gave me a second thought. But as if to interject my pessimistic rant something beautiful happened and it is described in John 1, “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood”.

Hanging on the cross Jesus offered forgiveness to a world which didn’t ask for it cause they never felt a need! But Jesus said, “Father, forgive them…”, before He said “It is finished”, because without forgiveness it wouldn’t be finished. He presented forgiveness before repentance and acquittal before the trial or conviction.  He epitomized love because He loved an undeserving world. I love Him because He first loved me and I love others because He showed the way.

I’m a recipient of an unmerited favor and undeserved love can I become giver of what I have freely received?

When “His love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me and on and on it goes” (One thing remains by B Johnson & J Riddle) can I “live like there is no tomorrow and love like I’m on borrowed time” (Good to be alive by J Gray).

“If not me, tell me who will be like Jesus to the least of these” – Kings & Queens by Audio Adrenaline.

As apostle Paul puts it without love I’m just a clanging cymbal and it is by love only that I’m defined and people will know I’m His disciple and a child Of the King.