“This is what I command you: Love one another. “If the
world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were
of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not
of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.
It is interesting to think about how the world loves. In
this passage it says that the world loves it’s own. This makes a lot of sense
when you think about it. There is a natural tendency to have affection for the
people who are the most like you. I would also note that people tend to show
grace and compassion to those that are the most similar to themselves. On the
other hand those in the world people tend to hate those that are dissimilar from
themselves. This seems to be a universal attribute of relationships.
“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and
hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he
causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward
will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only
your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even
the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.
Note that Jesus teaches us that the tendency to “love those
who love us” “greet only your brothers and sisters” that we are only doing what
the ordinary people do. This is not anything special.
It is also interesting that Jesus uses the word agape (love)
when referring to how Christians are to love and Phileo (love) when referring
to how the world loves it’s own (see John
15:17-19). Phileo describes an affection that exists in families and close-knit
social groups. So the world is capable of loving its own especially when its
own are quite similar to itself. However, this is not the type of love
Christians are called to. As I have been saying ours is a higher calling.
In short when we love only our own who are most like
ourselves we are loving in the same way as the world loves. On the other hand
when we love sacrificially then we love in the way that Christ loves. As
Christians we ought to aspire to love as Christ has loved.
God Bless You
~BJ Olson
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