Impossible Love

“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another… But we urge you brothers to do this more and more.“
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

Paul here tells the believers in the Thessalonian church to “love one another“, and then he adds this challenge: “do this more and more.“ The problem is, we don’t love this way often in the Body of Christ. When we feel convicted about loving someone in a certain situation, we will sometimes drum up the will to do it once, and then feel we’ve fulfilled our obligation. But Paul says this isn’t the way. We don’t love once and then call it good. Loving is not an achievement, or something to check off on our “Moral To Do List”, but an ongoing calling and pursuit. We are to continue it and grow in it. Humbling, isn’t it? Must be why the Christian life is only something HE can live… through us.