Pursue Love Toward All People

    If you have ever struggled with trying to feel justified in not exhibiting love toward people who “are not deserving of your love,” I beg for a bit of your time today, and ask you to think about Jonah.

    God gave Jonah the command to go to the city of Ninevah, tell them about God, and give them warning about what would happen if they didn’t turn from their wicked ways.

    There was just one problem though, Jonah didn’t like the people of Ninevah.  Jonah knew of the Lord’s mercy (see Jonah 4:2); He knew that if the people repented and turned to God, God would very likely have mercy on them and NOT destroy them – a punishment Jonah heartily believed they deserved.

    So Jonah chose to ignore God’s command. He got on a boat and sailed off in the opposite direction, and eventually ended up in the sea, in the belly of a great fish. Jonah, facing his own destruction, came to know the error of his ways, prayerfully repented, and God showed mercy to him and gave him another chance. He happily received from God what he refused to offer the people of Ninevah, think on that for a moment...

    Even with this second chance, God’s command did not change – ‘Go to Ninevah, tell them of Me, give them warning, that they might turn from their wicked ways.’  Jonah finally obeyed it, went to Ninevah, told them all that the Lord gave him to say (Jonah 3:1-4), and the people DID repent and God was merciful to them.

    God commands us to love: “love one another” (people you know, 1 John 3:23), “love your neighbour” (people you meet, Matthew 22:36-40), and “love your enemies” (people you don’t like, Matthew 5:43-48). His command has not changed, yet we, like Jonah, feel justified in completely ignoring the commands we don’t like. We need to humble ourselves, as Jonah was humbled in the depths of the sea, prayerfully repent and be obedient to all of God’s commands.

    The people of Ninevah “could not discern between their right hand and their left” (Jonah 4:11) – that is how God saw them and He pitied them, He wanted them to know of Him and His way so that He might be merciful to them.  There are people in your life, in your path, who don’t know God or His way, they can’t “discern between their right hand and their left” and you may be the one needed to tell them of God through kindly showing His love and exhibiting what it looks like to walk in His ways – you may be their Jonah!

    We get angry when we hear that there are people who have the cure for cancer but withhold it as we watch our loved ones die from that horrible disease, but we have something greater than the cure of cancer – we have access to life in Jesus and hope of eternal life – yet we withhold knowledge of it to those who are dying all around us in sin!

    Let’s pray for a heart that feels pity and concern for those who have forgotten God and His way, for those who do not know of God or His way. Let us love as God loves, who “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

    Search your heart today. Determine to pursue love and to humbly show others how to live for God! Generously share the joy of the Lord with everyone around you - be the Jonah who tells them of a better way!

You can do it! So can I!!