Love Like This

by Katie Harding on July 17, 2023

There is no division in love when it comes to our heavenly Father. He loves everyone. Those who believe in Him and those who don’t, “…for He makes His sun shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45b). He loves us all, not because of who we are or what we do, but because of who He is, it’s what He does. And Jesus instructed that as children of our heavenly Father, our actions should resemble His.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are reborn into a new heavenly Family, and the DNA and ways of our family of origin no longer have to control our thoughts or actions. We can die to those impulses as our heart change gives us the strength to begin to develop the character traits and mindset of our new Family. One of those is letting there be no division in our loving. We are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. The word perfect in the Scriptures doesn’t mean to get everything exactly right, but it means complete. When it comes to loving others, we are to love both our friends and our enemies. There is to be a completeness in our love.

Yet in reality, exactly how are we to love our enemies? I can almost hear the comments now. “But Katie, there are certain individuals who can make my days so difficult that I can’t even imagine being in close proximity to or in communication with them.” I once heard Dallas Willard define love as to will the good of another. Whether we like what they do or not, we love others by willing their good, and there is no better way to will the good of someone than to do exactly what Jesus told us to do — pray for them. Praying for others is one of the best ways to love.

Jesus said to love like this, through prayer, whether we get along with people or not. Let there be no division within our hearts. Will the good of everyone and pray for them, “so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:45).