Love is Always Right

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Bible Reading: Romans 13:8-10

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love . . . satisfies all of God’s requirements. Romans 13:9-10

Okay. Here’s a big question. What is the best, most righteous, most admirable task you could cross off your to-do list? Pick the statement that sounds to you like the biggest, best thing you could ever do:

□ Read your Bible and pray every day.

□ Shop ahead of time for your mother’s birthday.

□ Lug a huge Bible to school every day.

□ Finish all your homework before playing computer games.

□ Eat something from the four basic food groups every day.

□ Love others as you love yourself.

Yep, there are loads of good things we can do every day. But if we have to choose just one “most right thing,” we’re smart to stick with the one Jesus selected and modeled for us: loving others selflessly. Paul explained why that’s the greatest thing we can do when he wrote that “love satisfies all of God’s requirements” (Romans 13:10).

Think about this: Loving others like Jesus did checks off every item on God’s list of right things to do. That’s why loving others is the most right thing anybody can ever do.

Our own experiences in life prove that fact. We want to be loved by others. We certainly want to be treated with fairness, respect, courtesy, and honesty. And we like kind, loving treatment in all our relationships. If we don’t want those things, we’re a little weird. It’s normal for people to expect respect and love from others.

Nakita was disappointed when she didn’t get the loving treatment she hoped for. She felt slammed when her best friend lied to her. And that’s how we all feel. We all go bonkers when we’re cheated, ignored, made fun of, or treated with anything less than the love we expect. We want our parents, for example, to pat us on the back for doing things right—and we’re disappointed when they take us for granted. We expect our friends to be interested in what we like to do—and we get angry when all they want to do is what they like to do.

We expect to be loved, so we can be sure it’s our job to love others. Loving others is always the right thing to do. It’s how God treats us every day!

TALK: God loves us more than our brain can imagine. Why should you bother to love like God loves?

PRAY: Father, help us treat others the way you treat us.

ACT: Take this dare: The next time you feel mistreated, return the rotten treatment with loving words and actions.