Do I really need to love people?

Living the Christian life is about loving people.

The reality is, this will take work, because some people will wear you out!

What traps many Christians, is when they look for a spiritual way to disconnect themselves from their responsibility to love people.

The easiest way to do this is to say: "what people really need to do is love the Lord." After all, the Bible says in Mark 12:30...

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

However, loving people is not a violation of our command to "love the Lord".

Mark 12:30 simply says: this is the first commandment.

The Bible goes on to say in Mark 12:31...

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Loving people is not a violation of the command to love the Lord. They are both connecting commandments. This is why Mark 12:31 ends in the phrase: "there is none other commandment greater than these."

In other words, BOTH of these go together.

When people use covert avoidance tactics and techniques to hide from the people God has called them to love, all it proves is that they don't love God as much as they think they do.

Loving people is one of the evidences that you have rightly put your love for the Lord first.

All Christians should recognize that we need the Lord's help to love other people correctly.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.