It is easy to love people in theory. It is easy to love “mankind.” It is much harder to love real people especially in traffic, or when they are rude to us, or when they have hurt us deeply. But Paul calls us to be “devoted”—a word that implies sticking around even when it gets messy, inconvenient, or painful.
This kind of devotion is what fuels our willingness to make amends. We don’t go back to fix the past just to clear our own guilty conscience or to check a box on a list; we do it to restore dignity to the people we harmed. We realize that they are children of God who deserve to be treated with honor, regardless of how they treat us.
We remain “nonprofessional” in our love—we don’t need a degree, a title, or a position of authority to be kind. We just need a willing heart. When we choose to honor someone else, especially when we don’t feel like they “deserve” it, we are breaking the chains of our past selfishness and acting like Jesus. Real love isn’t a feeling; it’s a decision to treat someone with value.
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