Church & StudentsSample

This is a lovely passage, perhaps ideal for a children’s memory verse - lots of warm and affectionate virtues, tied up in the beautiful bow of love. If engaged with honesty, though, any reflection on the situations that might provoke the need for this love will remind us that this list of virtues is also deeply challenging.

In Luke 6, Jesus reminds his disciples of the importance of taking his words in their full context - “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that…But love your enemies, do good to them”. A community that lives out this kind of love is remarkable. If this is the kind of love that Jesus calls us to, no wonder her told his disciples that people would be able to identify them merely by the way they would love each other.

The power to live this radical, free life of forgiveness and love lies at the heart of this Colossians passage - whatever love we give, forgiveness we extend, gentleness we choose, is a reflection of that which we have already received. And what’s more, the echoes of Galatians 5 in that first list of virtues remind us that these things are also the truth of the Holy Spirit. We are empowered to love beyond when it’s easy by the very Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.

Students are increasingly spiritually hungry - looking around for any spiritual discipline, narrative, or power that might satisfy them. Love, as Paul describes here, as Jesus describes in the gospels, is arresting, and freeing. It is this love that we have to offer as we invite friends, family, students, and our community, to meet Jesus.

Questions: How might you spend time reflecting on God’s great love and forgiveness for you today?

Which of the virtues listed in the passage might you invite the Holy Spirit to grow in you today?

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you call us to love, and you empower us to love. May the love we have received and the love that we show cause many to turn their eyes toward you. Amen.