LOVE IN A BROKEN WORLD

Love is a beautiful thing, no doubt, but it has been used flippantly that it has lost its meaning; love has been confused with lust and infatuation. What makes love, love is that it is unconditional. You love because it is who you are, no strings attached.

One will think that love should be easy; however, it seems to be the hardest thing to do. You only need to look at our society to realise that the concept of love is lacking. The world is broken; there is so much division and hatred. We have people only looking out for their interests and do not care about the people around them. The truth is that you do not need to know people personally to love them. You only need a heart for humanity to feel love and compassion regardless of who they are, just like the good samaritan parable in Luke 10:27-35.

Unfortunately, even people who identify as Christians find it hard to love. I came to this realisation when a gruesome injustice happened. Suffice to say, I was living in ignorance, thinking that all Christians have and demonstrate the love of God. It was a rude awakening for me when I heard what people who identified as Christians were saying concerning the situation. It got me worried and brought me to tears that if our first reaction to something negative happening to our fellow humans is to question what they did to warrant such rather than compassion for them, then our Christianity needs to be examined. Even when Jesus saw people sick or demon-possessed, He was moved with compassion for them, these are people he did not know. When the harlot ran to Him when she was about to be stoned for committing adultery which, according to the law, was punishable by death, Jesus said that he who is without sin should cast the first stone.

No one is above the mercy and grace of God, and no one is far gone to be rescued by the love of God. Are there people who have done terrible things and deserve to be punished by law? Yes, there are but do we as Christians have to condemn them to death – No, if Jesus could pray for those who murdered Him, how much more us.

It breaks my heart to see this because we are supposed to be different. We are supposed to be models, but we find ourselves falling short. And I think it is time we go back to the genesis, find out where we got it all wrong and retrace our steps.

TYPES OF LOVE

There are various types of love; however, I will focus on five major ones.

Agape: Selfless love of humanity. This kind of love is tough to sustain by humans. It is sacrificial love, the type of love God showered on us when he sacrificed His son Jesus Christ to die for the remission of our sins, the kind of love he is still showing us to date.

Philautia: Self-love. This is the love of oneself. To be able to love people, you need to love yourself. As the saying goes, you cannot give what you don't have. You cannot love someone when you don't love yourself.

Eros: erotic: This is the love between couples. It relates more to sexual intimacy, ideally between married couples. This type of love is about romantic attraction and emanates from passionate and sensual acts.

Philia: love between friends and siblings. When you meet people for the first time, the relationship develops, and you become close friends. You start confiding in each other your hopes, dreams and aspirations. You become support systems and do life together. You share successes and failures, highs and lows of life.

Storge: love of parents for children. I have learned over the years from speaking to parents that when a child is born, they change your life. There is this overwhelming love that you have for your child regardless of their life stage, even when they get older. I mean, my mum still calls to check on me. If she has not heard from me, she gets worried for even more than a day and asks my other siblings if they have heard from me, and I am 32.

All love ideally should be unconditional regardless of the type of love.

HOW DO WE LOVE LIKE GOD.

Exchange our heart for a heart like His: As Christians, our daily heart cry is to be more like God. Ezekiel 36:26 says, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you". God's heart is full of love, compassion, forgiveness, and patience. He feels what we feel. As Christians, we should be an embodiment of all that God is, which is why we are created in His image and likeness. We need a heart full of compassion, full of love with no prejudice. We need to be patient with people and forgive quickly. But the question is, is that possible. Yes, it is when we lay aside our agenda and focus on being more like God.

See people the way God sees them: The bible says we are wonderfully and fearfully made. As stated earlier, we are all created in His image and likeness, and God is mindful of us regardless of who we are and what we have done. He is full of mercy. No one is beyond redemption before God. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us". I find it amazing that He still finds us worthy even in our sin.

If God finds everyone worthy, we should, too, as Christians. Some people may be hard to love, but it is not impossible. We must love them regardless because we are not to look at them from the human lens but from the lens of how God sees them, WORTHY.

Accept God's love for us and self-love: Sometimes, we find it challenging to love ourselves because we have not accepted God's love. And we cannot imagine someone loves us so much that He gave up His Son for our sins. Until we learn to receive God's love, we may find it challenging to love ourselves. And if we cannot love ourselves, we cannot love other people; that is why Matthew 22:39 says, "And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself".

Love is as simple as;

Listen: Listening to people, hearing them out and giving them a chance to express themselves.

Observe: Observing people and their behaviour will help you understand them and build better relationships.

Value: It is important to value people and their opinions even when we do not share or have the same belief.

Embrace: Embracing people from different backgrounds is also important. There is beauty in diversity. We are all created differently for a purpose.

With love, see you in a month.

Victoria