I Love Differently Now

I love differently now.

Before Christ, my love often had invisible transactions attached to it. I needed affirmation, agreement, appreciation, loyalty, attention... or for people to fit my expectations. When they didn't, I either withdrew or became consumed by their flaws.

This is the beauty and mystery of God.

As Christ lives His life through us, something changes.

We begin to love people because they bear His image... not because they complete something in us.

We no longer need people to be different before we can love them. We can see their brokenness without being offended by it. We can recognize the ugly parts without defining them by those parts, because we know God looked at our own brokenness and loved us first.

That doesn't mean we become naive or call evil good. Jesus loved people deeply while seeing them more clearly than anyone else ever could.

He wasn't blind to Judas, Peter, or the Pharisees. He simply wasn't controlled by what He saw.

This morning, I am reminded of Paul's words:

"From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh."

2 Corinthians 5:16

And John's:

"We love because he first loved us."

1 John 4:19

Perhaps one of the clearest evidences that Christ is truly living His life through us... is when we no longer love people for what they give us, or withhold love because of what we see in them.

We simply love... because He first loved us.

There is so much more to see in the Kingdom of God.