Love the Christian Who Drives You Crazy
You smile politely as she continues to ramble on about something you don’t care about, all the while gritting your teeth and clenching your fists. It’s that woman at church you really can’t tolerate, whose personality seems to grit against you each time you see her. As you nod along to her story repeat over and over in your head, “I don’t like her but I’ll love her in Christ.”
In the midst of your teeth gritting, fist clenching, and tongue biting, mind if I ask you: Do you truly love them?
We know that love isn’t always a feeling—love is a choice. We choose, despite feelings, to love one another. And I commend you for having that attitude! But, your reaction and your thoughts lead me to think that you still haven’t truly chosen to love that person yet.
In the universal church and the local church we are going to come across fellow believers that we clash with. People will annoy us, hurt us, and make us angry. It’s part of living in a sinful world. Thankfully we know that one day in Heaven we will not be faced with such conflict because we will all be finally free from sin.
But what do we do in the meantime? We are called to not only love some of our fellow brothers and sisters, but to love each and every one.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:7-12 ESV
How do we love those who grit our nerves? How do we truly love those difficult Christians in our lives?
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