When people think of love, they probably think of true love and falling in love. Which is fine, but this kind of love that I'm writing is love for others. It's never easy to love someone who doesn't love you back. Actually, it's not easy to love at all. In a world with so much violence and hatred, it's hard to love despite that. But we can. Jesus said to us, "A new command I give you; you must love one another." As Christians that is what we must do. Jesus loved us enough to die for us, so certainly we can love each other.

God wants us to love each other. I think one of the best passages in the Bible is the one Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8; 13.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast. it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails...And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

This is how the Bible describes love; any kind of love but especially godly love. Loving one another is not a suggestion Jesus made to the believers, but actually "a new command". We are to love one another and that is that. If everyone loved one another in this world, we would have peace. But that's not how it is and that's probably not how it's going to be.

Let me give an example of godly love that happened in my life.

Recently there were some boys who were riding their bikes up the church ramp. The ramp is very big and it is made for cars to drop off people who can't climb the stairs. Anyway, riding your bikes up and down the ramp is not allowed, especially if you don't belong to the church. My Mom went out and told them to stop and to leave.

She did it kindly, but in a firm manner. They lied to her and told her that one of the elders gave them permission to do it. Then she replied and said, "Really, well there's an elder here now. Would you like me to get him for you?" One of the boys called her a bad name and made a bad gesture towards her. My Mom just stood there and stared at them.

Later I asked my Mom, "Didn't it hurt you when they said that?"

"Well, I only knew they wanted a rise out of me. When I didn't give them one, they left." Mom replied and we both got into the car to leave.

Then I commented, "But I don't know how anyone could become ammune to that."

"I'm not ammune and unfortunately I've been called worse things. They were just trying to get a reaction out of me. Whether it was getting me upset or yelling back at them, all they wanted was a reaction. And when I didn't give them one, they just left." Mom answered me wisely.

I think that my Mom showed a lot of love by doing what she did. If they would have done that to me, I would have probably yelled back at them. But my Mom showed godly love to those boys and God was probably proud of her for it.

Jesus probably had a hard time loving everyone too. Not only did he love everyone, despite what they did to him, he died for them too. If they would have asked Jesus' forgiveness, he would have forgave them. Even if they didn't, he still loved them nonetheless. The point of all of this is; if Jesus can love one another unconditionally, we can too. It won't hurt us; to be honest it would make us all bigger and better people.