I am sure many of you already figured this out. This may simply be me arriving late to the party, but when I was reading John 2:25 recently it struck me that very early in His ministry, Jesus already knew exactly what He was dealing with. Contrast that with us. When we jump into a new project and the people we are working with turn out to be difficult, our spirit dampens, our motivation fades, and our desire to make progress wanes almost immediately.
Jesus knows our true nature. He knew He would be saving wicked and deceitful hearts that had turned away from God. Somehow He is able to see past the wickedness and see the victim of evil underneath it. As sinners, we are poisoned by evil and prone to darkness.
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
-Jeremiah 17:9
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?”
God can know it. Only He can set aside ego for love. He is able to be equal parts righteous and loving, a balance no man can achieve. I honestly do not know if I would die for an evil person. I would be blind to the fact that he is a child of God. I would see only the evil and be unable to love past it. But if I dial it down a bit and think about simply loving someone who has been intentionally hurtful to me, even that is a chore.
“But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.”
-John 2:24-25
This verse is an answered prayer. I was asking God to give me a clean heart, as David did in Psalm 51:10, and He showed me my own inherently wicked nature and the transformation He is putting me through. I have a very long way to go. But I see the light that illuminates our path with love.
All I have to do is acknowledge that all of us are victims of evil and that we are His handiwork. Jesus died for us. When I put it that way, my own resistance starts to look a little ridiculous. Our commandment from God is simple: love the ones He created, with love. We were not asked to die for these people who are annoying, selfish, arrogant, immature, insert whatever attribute you personally cannot stand.
It also takes away the shock we feel when someone hurts us. Be prepared for the worst but give it your best. With the help of our good Lord, I intend to do just that. I cannot promise success. I can only keep trying.
Many moons ago, when I was a new Christian, I was in an instructor led study group, and the instructor told us that she had mastered loving our Lord but found it extremely difficult to love people. I subliminally took that as a rite of passage. But now I see it for what it actually is: a roadblock to a clean heart. So here is to loving everyone God puts in my life, and that includes you. I will learn to love you, and in the meantime this is what I can say with honesty: I love you because you are a perfect child of God. May He bless you with the kind of peace only He can give.
Dear God,
Your love for us is inspiring. Thank You for seeing past the wickedness in my heart and showing me great and wonderful things. May I let Your love flow freely through me so that everyone I encounter knows Your presence. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.