Let Us Love One Another

Have you ever noticed that God will send you the same message over and over again until you finally get it? For example, you might do your devotion for the day and read a scripture that really speaks to you. Then, later in the week, you run across the same scripture in your Sunday school class, then again in your Bible Study group, then again in your favorite online devotional blog, then you hear it on your favorite radio program...it just goes on and on.

Some people call it a coincidence, but I don't believe that it happens by chance. I know that it's God's perfect plan and that He puts these scriptures and messages in our lives and makes them unavoidable. He is so patient that He continues to feed us the same message over and over again until we finally say, "Okay, God, I get it. What do You want me to learn from this?" and let Him show us His perfect truth.

That's been happening to me lately. Last Wednesday night, the lesson that I taught was a familiar one - we studied about Pharaoh forcing the Israelites into slavery and learned that even when bad things happen we can still trust God because He sees what we go through and He has a plan. The lesson also pointed out that we should love one another and always treat people with kindness and love instead of being mean like Pharaoh. (I know this is kind of elementary, but I teach toddlers through fifth grade, so hang with me for a few minutes.)

Our memory verse (which I hope all the kids learned, because it's a really important one) was 1 John 4:7-8 - "Beloved, let us love one another: For love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love."

I typed that verse up to give out to my classes on Wednesday night, put it on our Mission Kids blog (check it out at http://www.ssfwbmissionkids.blogspot.com/) and even taught the kids a little song to help them remember the verse. Every week, when I give the kids a memory verse, I try my best to learn it and memorize it as well, but I had learned this verse when I was younger, so I just put it on the fridge for my brother to learn and didn't really look at it anymore.

Well, apparently, I hadn't learned my lesson to God's satisfaction, because He kept putting that verse in front of me all week. It popped up on my friends' facebook profiles, in the online devotions that I read, in my personal devotion, in a book that I was reading and on the radio show that I listen to every day.

But what lesson did I need to learn? Loving people is hard, but I already knew that I was supposed to treat people with love (and I try - I really do! My sarcastic streak makes it really hard sometimes, but I try nonetheless), so what was God trying to teach me?

When I finally said, "Okay, God. I get it. What do You want me to learn from this?", He started showing me.

I've been studying the Samaritan woman at the well (check out her story in John 4) and have been reading Paperdoll by Natalie Lloyd. One of the lessons in the book is about love. The Samaritan woman knew about love. She had been married five times and was living with a man that was not her husband. She had plenty of experience in love. She knew exactly what it was. Right?

Wrong. She thought she knew what love was. To her, it was just an emotion. Something that she used to fill the void in her life. She was so desperate for real love that she filled her longing with an artificial, pop-culture, made up version of love. She looked for love in all the wrong places, and all the wrong faces (sounds like a country song, right?). But that day at the well, she learned what LOVE really was.

She learned that she was worthy of love -

How many of you know a Samaritan woman? I'm not talking about a person that was born in Samaria, I'm talking about an outcast. An outsider. Someone that is living on the edge and desperately longing to be on the inside. Someone that has no self-esteem. Someone that had been beat up and defeated by the cruelties of this world. She avoids your gaze, she walks down the hallway alone, she carries around her broken heart and searches every face for any semblance of acceptance and love.

Guess what? She is worthy of love. So are you. So am I. God lovingly created each of us. He placed a longing in our hearts to love and be loved. The Samaritan woman had been passing out her heart to every person that would take it, hoping that someone would finally take care of her and her heart and love her the way she so desperately wanted and needed to be loved.

That modern day Samaritan woman that you know? She's the same way. She needs to be loved. And since Jesus isn't walking around on the earth in human form anymore to meet her at her modern day well and show her what love is, it's up to us to do it. He told us in John 15:15-17, "Henceforth, I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, that ye love one another."

Jesus came to earth and suffered and died to save us. Now, He wants us to go tell the world what He did. It's up to us to show them what His love looks like. The Samaritan woman was worthy of love. Jesus showed her love. We should do the same for those modern-day Samaritans.

She learned that she should love herself -

Do you have a healthy self-esteem? As women, we all struggle with body image. We all struggle with loving ourselves. The Samaritan woman was no different. She definitely struggled with her own self-worth. This is evident from her past. She had been married five times and when she met Jesus at the well, she was living with a man that was not her husband. She used men and their empty promises of love and affection to feel like she was special and worthy of being loved.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says, "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and you are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

The Samaritan woman was trapped in sin because she didn't understand how special she was. She didn't love herself, and she allowed people to use her and mistreat her. When she met Jesus and He told her all the things she had ever done and showed her what love really was, she finally got it. She was not only worthy of love, she was allowed to love herself. She was Created by God and was loved by Him, and she was His temple.

Do you love yourself? Do you treat yourself like a temple of the Lord, or do you allow your body to be used and abused by yourself and others?

She learned that she should love others -

After the Samaritan woman spoke with Jesus at the well, the first thing she did was run throughout the streets and tell others about Him and all the wonderful things He had done for her. She was so excited about sharing His love and His message with others that she left her water pot at the well and ran through the streets. The men in the village thought she was crazy!

How excited do we get about sharing God's love today? I'm afraid we've lost that excitement that the Samaritan woman had. After she learned that she was worthy of love and that she could love herself, she couldn't wait to share that love with others.

She wasn't instantly a Bible scholar. She didn't instantly gain all knowledge and understanding of what had just happened to her at the well, but she did know this: she had finally filled that void in her life and there was a fountain of living water springing up in her soul and it was overflowing and she HAD to share it!

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Proverbs 25:25 She had good news - she had been thirsty and now she was filled. And she knew the Man that could fill others that were thirsting.

So, "Beloved, let us love one another." We are all worthy of love, we are all loved by the Father, and we all have love to share.