Loving Others

 We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:16–17 NIV)

 Philip Yancey once wrote, “As a Christian, I cannot not care about the environment, about homelessness and poverty, about racism and religious persecution, about injustice and violence. God does not give me that option.”

 Yancey quotes that old familiar passage, which he explains this way: “Jesus offers comfort, but the comfort consists of taking on a new burden, His own burden. Jesus offers a peace that involves new turmoil, a rest that involves new tasks What new tasks?

 Jesus summed them up when He summed up the Christian faith: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” —our “neighbor” being anyone we are in a position to help.

 Loving others as much as we love ourselves doesn’t come naturally and seldom is easy, but it’s what we are called to as Christians. —Keith Phillips [1]

 I used to believe that Christianity solved problems and made life easier. Increasingly, I believe that my faith complicates life, in ways it should be complicated. —Philip Yancey

[1] Keith Phillips Anchor Granted to Us on Behalf of Christ