Ch. 434 - A New Challenge

I feel very burdened right now.

As a Christian, I feel obligated to love everyone. But I mean, I don't really have any trouble with that. I feel love for all people, because we are all children of God. I thus feel that everyone around me is equally deserving of being loved - not only by God, but by me, as well. And so I do. To the best of my ability, I love them. I fail often, but I try. Yet then my mind keeps going back to that thought of obligation. The feeling that I "have" to love people. I mean, it's commanded of me, right?

In Mark 12:31 Jesus says, '"The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."' So it's not simply commanded, it's commanded by God Himself.

I can't go around ignoring that.

But I think that the fact that God does, indeed, tell us to do this that it makes it easier to do so. We want to please God. We want to do His will. It's in our nature, I think. Sure, there are people who look out for only themselves. But I want to believe that many people in this world are either people-pleasers or God-pleasers. Or both! If people are trying their hardest to please people, in a way I believe that it's because they love people. In turn, then, they are actually pleasing God, because that's what He wants of us. He wants us to love others. So people may be pleasing God without even realizing it! Oh, but how much more they would be pleasing God if they acknowledged His Son as their Lord and Savior...

So I've established a few things here.
A) We are commanded to love people.
B) There are a few different types of people in this world.
1. Those who live life for themselves.
2. Those who live life for others.
3. Those who live life for God.
- And those who live life in a combination of the last two.

Do you love others?

Are you loving them in such a way that they know Christ's love?

Are you living life for yourself?
Or are you living life for God?

Just some things to think about, I guess.


'We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.'
[1 John 3:14]