However, I have come to see over the years through God's word what love really means. It always seems that when we pray for something like love and patience, God places people in our lives who are difficult to love and people who are demanding. Yet, He says that "love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.......Love never fails!" (1 Corinthians 14:4-5, 8)
See, the first thing that I have to realize is that God loved me not because I was lovable. He loved me because that is His nature! Period! If His love was contingent upon my personal traits and characteristics, He would have forsaken me long ago. We are called to love one another just as God and His son Jesus loved us. That is love with no conditions or strings attached. Unconditional love.
And once we grow in our spiritual lives, He will place unlovable people in our path who we will be expected to love in a Godly manner. That is, we may not like the person or agree with what they say or do, but we must love them. And the purpose of doing so? To become as much like Jesus as possible in this life that we may be greeted by God upon our physical death with these words, "well done my good and faithful servant." (Mat 25:21) We have to remember that "wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." (Mat 7:13) If we hate, despise, ridicule, and gossip about those who are different than us, who get on our nerves, who continue on in sin...........then what are we doing any different than the majority of people in this world, the majority as Jesus tells us that are passing through the wide gate?
I personally have to remember all the times that I have forsaken God, the times when I have done bad things, the times when I lived in the squalor of sin..............then it becomes easier for me to love the unlovable, just as God loved that unlovable me!
