1 John: This Is Love: A 5-Day Reading Plan With Nicole SmitheeSample

Key Verse: 1 John 3:18

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Reflection:

In the Gospels, Jesus responded to the needs of others. Jesus saw people not as threats, inconveniences, or regrets. He saw them not only as they were, but also as who they could be. He saw their flaws and welcomed them anyway. He saw people not as problems to be avoided, but as image bearers of the divine to serve. He saw people not as a means to His own agenda, but as recipients of His compassionate love.

His example is a constant reminder that no one is just another face in a crowd. No one (including you) is ordinary or basic. Not the person sitting next to you in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the co-worker on the other end of the Zoom meeting, the neighbor across the street, the barista on the other side of the counter, the orphan on the other side of the world, the individual posting questionable comments on their Facebook page, the political candidate trying to improve their ratings at the polls or the celebrity whose marital woes are featured on the cover of this week’s tabloids.

Embracing the way of Christ means we become restorers of dignity to whomever we come into contact with. We seek to know people as spectacularly and scandalously saved-by-grace children of God, to see the intricately and divinely designed masterpieces they are, to recognize not just the temporal exterior but the eternal within, to understand both their triumphs and their tribulations, to welcome them as they are while believing wholeheartedly in who they could be and to bestow upon them the same value that was forever set by the precious blood of Jesus on the cross.

So today, why not actively venture to face the world with eyes wide open? Seek to really see those around you. Dare to open up your personal space to the needs of others. May your elbows get bumped and your ego a bit bruised if need be. May your plans get messed with by humanity in the best of ways, and may your love turn to action.