Learning the Excelling Way of LOVE

Learning To Love Our Fellow Humans

As Jesus pointed out, in addition to loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, we should love our neighbor as ourselves. In fact, the love of God obligates us to love our fellow humans. The apostle John explained: "Beloved ones, if this is how God loved us, then we are ourselves under obligation to love one another." He further emphasized: "I love God,' and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should be loving his brother also." -1 John 4:11, 20, 21.

Today we are living in a world where most people show a me-first attitude, being "lovers of themselves," just as the Bible foretold. (2Timothy 3:2) Therefore, if we want to learn the excelling way of love, we have to put forth serious effort to make our minds over and imitate our loving Creator, rather than follow the selfish ways of people in general. (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:1) God is even "kind toward the unthankful and wicked," and he "makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous." since our heavenly Father sets such a magnificent example for us, we should strive to be kind and helpful to all. By doing so, we can prove ourselves 'sons of our loving heavenly Father.' - Luke 6:35; Matthew 5:45.

Sometimes such loving deeds result in helping people become worshipers of the true God. Some years ago a housewife who is one of Jehovah's Witnesses tried to share the Bible message with her neighbor, only to be firmly rebuffed. However, she was not discouraged by the response. Instead, she continued to show kindness and tried to be helpful to the neighbor. One time she helped the neighbor move to a different house. Another time she arranged for someone to accompany the neighbor to the airport to meet the latter's relatives. Later, the neighbor accepted a Bible study and eventually became a zealous Christian despite very severe persecution from her husband. Yes, those expressions of love laid the groundwork for everlasting blessings.

If we are honest about it, we will admit that God's love for us is not because we have an abundance of admirable qualities. On the contrary, he loves us even though we have many faults and shortcomings. That being so, we should likewise learn to love our fellow humans despite their many failings. If we train ourselves to discern and appreciate the finer qualities of others rather than looking for their faults, we will find it much easier to feel love toward them. What we feel toward them may even go beyond the love governed by principle and include the warm affection and fondness that exists between close friends.

Next time: Letting Your Love Grow

Watchtower, 1999