MIrror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror

“If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20 NIV


This scripture is a hard one. Most people I know who are believers in God will usually confess some type of love for God. They love Jesus. They love Allah. They love the Creator. Whatever God they worship, they say they love. My faith in my God says that if I say that I love my God, then I cannot truly love my God unless I love the people God created. And therein lies the rub. People get on my nerves. People let me down. People disappoint me. People mistreat me. People annoy me. People misunderstand me. People talk about me. People are fake. People lie. People cheat. People do all kinds of things that make it really hard to love them. And yet, my God calls for me to love them anyway. Even with all of their obvious faults, and even for the stuff I don’t even know about yet. I have to love people.

There is a connection between our relationship with God and our relationship with people. The bible tells us that we are created in God’s image. All of us. Not just black people. Not just white people. Not just the people you like. Not just the people who do what you say. But all of us are created in God’s image. As a matter of fact, the best way for us to see God is in human form. God is invisible. God is a spirit. But if we are created in God’s image, then we bear an image of what God looks like. God came to earth in human form through the person of Jesus Christ. People who walked with Jesus or saw him in that day got to see God up close and personal. The one in who no sin dwelled. The one who walked in love and loved others. The one whose life we now read about in the pages of scripture. The one who said that he was going to be the only way for us to connect with God again. And then he was murdered. By people. People who said they loved God. They killed an innocent man, but they said they loved God. God says that’s not possible.

But truthfully, it’s just hard to love some people because we can see where they are just plain evil. We are exposed to the wicked plots and self-serving behaviors that they exhibit. And who wants to just let people get away with stuff? I mean nobody wants to be looked at like they are a pushover. And sometimes you just want to let people know that you know what they are doing or what they think they are going to do. Or you just want to fix them because they are so off! Seems pretty natural to me. I know I feel like that. Especially when you can see the problem and it’s glaring you in the face.

But I got convicted one day a few years ago. And God showed me that the evil and the imperfection that I am so quick to see in other people is a reflection of what I am doing to God. Our human relationships are a mirror for our relationship with God. That’s why we cannot say we love God whom we cannot see, if we don’t love people who we see everyday. We have to learn to love each other because it will also help us learn to love God.

Think about the imperfection you see in your most challenging relationship. Maybe it’s with a parent or a child. Maybe it’s a romantic partner. Maybe it’s a co-worker. Maybe it’s a friend. Take a look at what is most challenging in the relationship and reflect on whether or not you are doing the same thing to God. If the person is stubborn and wants things their way all the time, would God say that about you in your relationship to Him? If the person is afraid of commitment, have you truly committed to God? If the person is not spending quality time with you, how much time are you giving to God? If they are being rebellious, how rebellious are you with God? If they can’t keep their promises, how many promises have you broken to God? If they refuse to go deeper and be more intimate, how intimate are you with God? These are hard questions, but if you actually take a moment to reflect on it, you may end up cutting that person a little more slack. Because what you then realize, is that even though you have done this in your relationship with God, God still loves you anyway. God still provides for you. God still looks out for you. God still keeps you. God is still God to you, regardless of how you treat Him. And he never leaves you.

I’m not saying that every relational issue can be immediately resolved with this simple reflection. However, I do think that those who profess to know a loving, forgiving, faithful God, have no right to be so quick to judge the faults of others without first reflecting on how they are treating the one who loves them most. And just maybe, if you focus on doing the thing with God that you are quick to judge in someone else, then you will find that they are still loveable anyway. You may just see them a little differently. At least that is what happened to me. I stopped focusing on being frustrated with the person and started to focus again on my relationship with God. I saw where I was not as committed as I thought I was. I saw where I was being stubborn. I saw where I was afraid to take a risk. I saw where I was not walking in my purpose. And I started to pray about that. I started to confess that although these were faults in me, God still loved me. Although I fell short in my relationship with Him, he never left me. He found a way to love me. Through His son.

And that is probably the only way any of us can stand to have a chance at loving other people. Through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we would just leave people in their sin as we engage them in relationship. If there was no way for God to love them, I don’t have a chance to love them, because all I could see is their faults. But God chose to make a way for me to be loved by Him and for them to be loved by Him. I don’t have the luxury of judging someone else and choosing not to love them because I see their faults. I’m doing the same thing to the God I say I love. And maybe I would be a little less judgmental and critical of others if I first look at my relationships with other people as a reflection of my relationship with God. Consider them a mirror. Check the reflection first before you speak in judgement.