“I am giving you a new commandment, that you ^[a]love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.” -John 13:34-35 AMP

Everyone loves love. I love the idea of love, talking about love, falling in love, all of that stuff. I guess you could say that I am a hopeless romantic at heart- maybe it was all of those Hallmark movies I watched with my mom growing up (love you mama!).

But what I want to talk about today is not the fluffy, gushy, type of love. We see above that God commands us to love one another. Does that mean that we need to fall in love or have romantic feelings towards every person on this earth? Of course not. The type of love God commands us to comes from the Greek word Agape.

The Amplified Bible defines the term Agape as not so much a matter of emotion as it is of doing things for the benefit of another person, and having an unselfish concern for another. Let’s unpack that.

We hear all the time that God loves us (and He does!). What we really mean is that God agape loves us. He literally loves us unconditionally- no matter what we’ve done, who we are, or whether loving us will benefit Him in the long run. It’s just His nature. It’s who He is. Just like you would love your biological child, God loves us. And He commands us to love each other the same way.

Is there a fine print in the verse? I used to think so. Something that says “Love everyone, unless…” Unless they aren’t the same political party as me. Unless they voted for Trump (slow your roll). Unless they are gay, transgender, or bisexual. Love everyone except those who don’t love you back. Those who are immigrants, or have AIDS, or have had an abortion.

Would you ever command your child to do something that you weren’t willing to do yourself? I would hope not. God would not tell us to love one another if He didn’t love everyone in the first place.

The point is, it is none of our business to decide who is deserving of God’s love. To put it harshly, you are delaying the spread of God’s love by spewing hate all over social media. Seriously, friends, let’s consider that for a moment. Do you think God sees you saying (or typing, or thinking) hateful things toward minority groups and smiles? Or do you think when you get to Heaven, God will look at all the people you didn’t love, and applaud you because they were somehow undeserving? Of course not.

There is no fine print on God’s love. Even if we disagree. Even if it makes us uncomfortable. Even if we don’t understand. Just love. Ask God to help you agape love others.

No. Fine. Print.

Just love.

xx- Cait