Acts 16:1-10 / John 15:18-21
If Christianity had to be described in just a few words, then it can be said that Christianity is all about love.
To elaborate it further, it is about God’s love for us and our love for one another.
Jesus is God’s love becoming human and expressing God’s love in human form.
All that sounds nice and beautiful, until we hear what Jesus said in the gospel.
Jesus said that the world hated Him and hence the world will also hate us who are His disciples.
This can be rather puzzling, because if love is nice and beautiful, then everyone would want to love, and everyone would also want to love Jesus.
But we also need to remember that while love is an emotion, it is also a decision.
True love is selfless and also sacrificial, it is kind and forgiving, it is compassionate and gentle.
True love reflects the love of God.
But very often, the world has a contorted, distorted and twisted concept of love.
And when it encounters God’s love, it will challenge and contradict God’s love and try to impose its own brand of love.
So if the world hates us, it is because it cannot understand God’s way of love.
Still, we must continue to love as God has loved us, because God’s love will always prevail in the end.