"Owe nothing to anyone-except for our obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfull the requirements of God's law" (Romans 13:8, NLT)
WOW! Notice that phrase our obligation to love one another? It is not a suggestion, it is a command to love each other. But when we stop to think about it, how many problems in this world would be solved if we all lived by this simple rule. If we love each other, our neighbors, our enemies, and others, then we won't steal from them, lie to or about them, gossip about them, or hurt them in any way.
Instead we would want what is best for them. The Bible says to love our neighbor as ourselves. Now we know we all love ourselves. We take care of ourselves. If ourselves is hungry we feed it, if it is hurt we make it feel better, if we are sad we try to do something to make ourselves feel better. So if we love ourselves like this then we are supposed to love our neighbor just the same.
But what happens most of the time is that we are so caught up in our own selves that we don't think about loving others like that. Oh, we love them if they love us and do what we want, but we have to learn to love them no matter what.
This scripture goes on to say if we love others we will fulfill God's requirements of us. So my challenge to you today is the question: Are you living each day in fulfillment of God's word and His command for us to love those around us. Show your love in a new way today to someone you may not have shown love to in a while. Let God be your help and guide.
Grab a cup of coffee and a little bit of chocolate and let's share together of the grace and mercy of God.
