The Way of Love

I've been thinking lately about something my pastor said a few months ago - you can't say you love someone if you are not willing to talk to them about their relationship with Jesus, even if it is awkward or uncomfortable. So how much DO I love those around me - family, friends, neighbors? Often not very well.

  "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 
  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13

Is the church of Jesus Christ characterized by love? Do we love the congregation down the street? "By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another." (John 13:35) Do we love the downtrodden, the broken, the addicted in our communities? And what about those on the fast track to job and financial success? "Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:23) Are we motivated to pray for and help, rather than criticize, someone who falls into sin? "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." (1Corinthians 10:12) "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." (Galatians 6:1)

Jesus, help me to love the way You love. Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Open my eyes, my ears, my heart to family and friends and acquaintances who desperately need You and then share Your love with them. Amen.