5:34 – Imperfect Unselfish Love For All

#faithbites #faithjourney unselfish

Intro

A couple of days ago, I told a work colleague that I loved her. Not in a romantic way, but in friendship. The way she cares for others gives of herself and supports me really impacts my life. She told me she loved me and how I will love unconditionally and do anything for anyone at any time. (And yes, we need to normalize saying I love you to more people). Last night I had a dream that I was a foster parent for a teenage girl. It was imperfect but I tried my best. There was a group of social workers trying to see if she was in a good placement with me. The girl and I had a deep heart to heart (tears were shed and the social workers were seeing this) when we said how much we loved each other, how afraid we were of losing each other, and how imperfect we were but were trying. When I woke up today, I still felt this heavy, unselfish, and imperfect love in my heart. Maybe God is trying to tell me something 🙂

Our love is definitely imperfect though we can try to be better, forgiving, kind, and unselfish as we look at God’s perfect love.

Questions

• How do you describe your love of others?
• Do you tell others, outside of family and romantic relationships, that you love them?
• Can you see the faults in your love? If so, do you ask for forgiveness?
• What can you do to continually improve on your love of others?

Scripture

• 1 Peter 4:8 – Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
• Colossians 3:14 – And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
• John 15:17 – And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
• Ephesians 3:17 – 19 – ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 

Reflection

I originally looked for verses that showed God’s perfect love. (We know this in a nutshell from John 3:16). What I found though was mention after mention of loving one another. Love covers sin, it binds us in harmony, gives us power, and connects us. All of these show us how wide, deep, long, and everlasting God’s love is. Jesus never told us to only love our family and romantic relationships. He is clear that we should love everyone. He tells us that our love covers a multitude of sins. That doesn’t mean the sin doesn’t happen but that we can be forgiven and grow in our relationships. Our imperfect love is made better through Jesus’s perfect forgiving love. This is by God’s design.

As we close, remember that we should strive to love whoever we can. That even though our love is imperfect and not as unselfish as we want it to be, we can improve daily through forgiveness, practice, and God’s perfect love.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you for your example of perfect love. You never turned anyone away. You shared your gifts, your table, and your love with everyone. Help us to be more like you. We pray that you help us tell people that we love them and act as people who love. When we make mistakes, please forgive us and help us to be closer to your example of love. We pray this in your heavenly name, Amen.