The two commandments (love God, love others: Matthew 22:36-40) hold hands and cannot be separated. Why? This verse makes it painfully simple: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:20).
Not easy words to write or hear or read. A liar is someone who says untrue words. A deceiver. So when we hate people who have wronged us, yet hallow God’s name in church, we are liars.
Loving others isn’t easy. And at times I don’t love well. I’d rather trumpet everyone else’s failures and barbs and minimize my own. I’d rather God forgive my mountain of sins than choose to forgive the molehill of sins that others have perpetrated against me. I’d rather bask in my self-righteous rightness than consider that I may be the perpetrator in need of others’ grace and forgiveness.
Written by: Mary Demuth
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