Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. – Romans 12: 9-10

In his sermon this past Sunday, my pastor told us to work towards being good Christians and not good church members.

That really resonated with me because there are a lot of people who hold fancy positions within their churches.

But the way they treat others is way less than ideal…

When Jesus called for us to love our neighbors, he meant that we should love everyone.

He didn’t call us to be cute and polite. He called us to demonstrate genuine love:

• greeting people warmly/making them feel at ease in our prescence
• praying with and for others
• refraining from judging and backbiting
• going out of our way to help people when we see they need help
• sincerely forgiving others
• apologizing when we’ve done something wrong
• really listening and empathizing
• demonstrating thoughtfulness
• treating others the way we’d want someone to treat our dearest family members

People should walk away from us feeling like we truly care about them, not like we don’t want anything to do with them or couldn’t care less about what happens to them.

That’s not the Way of Christ Jesus.

With every person we come across each day, we have to be mindful to treat them with the love of Christ.

Be blessed,

Alexia

Prayer: God, fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to demonstrate real Christ-like love to everyone I meet. Give me an unselfish heart that searches for people to care for. Guide me and show me how to have genuine compassion for other people. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.