On Monday, I talked about the way Jesus told his disciples to love each other.

On Tuesday, I talked about how this meant that extrovert Peter and reflective Nathaniel were told to love each other. Simon the Zealot and Matthew the civil servant were told to love each other. Thomas the loyal pragmatist and John, one of the sons of thunder, were told to love each other.

The circle of the ones God loves is bigger than we think.

But, of course, the circle of the ones God wants us to love is smaller than we want.

Who is the person closest to you that you don’t want to love. That gets on your nerves. That is part of your team or your family. That you are polite to but compete with.

What if we were sitting in a room with Jesus. And he’s looking around at your family, at your small group, at your team. And he says, “love one another.” He looks right at you. And he glances at another person.

And you know.

+++

I understand. People do awful things to each other.

So start with the person that hasn’t.

What would it look like to love them the way that Jesus loves them. And loves you? With sacrifice and with compassion and with patience. By trying to understand their perspective, by trying to understand their motive, their background. By making a list of their buttons, the ones you know how to push, and specifically learning how not to push them.

That’s what loving looks like.

We want, sometimes, for following Jesus to be big dramatic actions. Most often, following Jesus, doing what he did, is caring actions for the best interests of the person in front of you.