It has never ceased to amaze me how mean some folks can be to others. I’ve seen it in my own life and in others’ lives. Name calling, put-downs, ignoring others — I’ve seen and heard it all.

Just the other day, a perfect stranger just reminded me just how little I know. “You don’t know much,” they said.

I’m not sure how they knew it, but attacking my intellect or lack there of really hits a nerve for me. Maybe it’s because I feel like I’m not that smart about a lot of things, but being called stupid has always been a sore spot for me.

I wonder why people seem more inclined to be less friendly these days. Maybe it just is more visible, but it seems like it happens more often.

What are we doing if we are not loving our neighbor, my friends?

I may not always agree with my neighbors — but I don’t have to. I can love them anyway.

I will not allow hate to take up residence in my heart, not for any reason. Just as what the Apostle Paul said we can be a great many things, but if we don’t have love, we are only a noisy gong.

Love functions in a variety of helpful ways in many situations. As it says in 1 Corinthians 13 4-7, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

But why is love so great? Why does love provide all this acceptance and compassion and care? Because, as we see in 1 John 4:8, “Anyone who does not love, does not know God because God is love.”

Therefore, God is and embodies love.

We are called to love our neighbors, just as it is said in verse 11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.”

Instead of merely seeing the surface — why don?t we try to view the world through a lens of love? Instead of acting out in anger, malice, or hatred – why don’t we try to see the soul and heart of the person we are dealing with?