Each One Loved

In the last post, I talked about a dream for the church in which each individual would be known in a real and holy way.  Here are the four parts of that dream together:

Each one known
Each one loved
Each one called
Each one sent

Today, I'll talk a little more about what I mean by "each one loved".

It is one thing to have every person known in a real and holy way within a community of faith.  It is another thing to have each one loved.  Knowledge is a powerful thing.  To know somone and to be known is actually quite awesome.  Intimate and personal information, when it is known, can either be used for good or bad.  Love is the law of the church and it insists that knowledge of a person be used to build that person up in faith.  When we say that each one must be loved for a truly Christian community to exist, this doesn't mean that we have a warm feeling of favor and affection for each person at all times.  Rather, each one loved means that we have as our culture the practice of love and respect for every person in the community.  This love, at its height results in mutual affection and brotherly love as Paul puts it.  This love is the new commandment given by Christ by the example of washing His disciples feet.  Love sometimes means that boundaries and guardrails be placed in someone's life and in their relationships so harm cannot continue to be done to that person or others.  Love does not mean always giving a person what they want or always making sure they are happy, love is seeking the best for each person in the wisdom of God. 
The way that love can be shared among the family of God stems completely from the way we are loved by God first.  If we do not have a strong sense of God's constant, everlasting, and powerful love for us, how can we have any source to love our neighbors?  Only when we are standing on the reality of God's grace can we offer that grace to others without exausting our own emotional resources.  The Christian community should have as its first priority a meditation and singular focus on God's love for each person.  When we know that we are loved and when we know that our brother or sister is loved, it becomes natural and even easy to love others and be loved by them.
The other important emphasis of "each one loved" is that we cannot only love those who are easy to love.  The scriptures are clear that if we only love those who love us, we are no better than the pagans.  But if we love our enemy and those who are most difficult to love, it will be a testament that God's love is true and higher than human love.  If you cannot honestly say that you are able to love your enemy or those whom you do not like, what power does God's mercy, forgiveness and grace have in your life?  In the community of faith there will always be people we do not like who are not easy to love.  These are the ones we focus on loving the most by praying for them, meditating on God's love for them, and remembering God's great love for us in the midst of our struggle with that person.