Love One Another…

Love One Another…7-22-25

We call my grandson the cat-whisperer. He loves cats and tamed this one with days of intentional thoughtful movements, words, and actions. It was an outdoor cat that lived in a barn near here, and is gone now. He still asks about Barn Cat. We laugh about how no one could get close to him, until my grandson showed him a different kind of love.

You see, there are many kinds of love. I experienced the rugged, manipulative love of self over others within my biological family’s home. I knew the difference even then. I still do. I don’t say, “I love you” freely. I’m learning to say those words. I love deeply and openly with my actions. I love with my whole soul.

I’ve been reading through the Bible again at night. I’ve read straight through many times, but this time I’m finding scriptures and stories have a new meaning. There is a different intentionality with my reading now. Last night, I was reading in 2 Peter. Peter outlines spiritual growth. You can see the progression as the last part ends in agape, love. 2 Peter 1:5-9, “5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”

I had been praying about what to blog today and as I kept reading even into 1 John, the words “love one another” were present and repeated. These exact words appear 13 times in the KJV. These words, a glaring reminder that my reserved words are okay, I am growing in this area, but they are not enough. But, for me, actions displaying brotherly love is what is needed.

I can see this in others. There are a couple of my friends in church that don’t say the words, “love you” often. But, oh my, their love for their brothers and sisters is present, evident, and over flowing. I know when I say or write to these women and end with, “love you”. They may not write that back. But I see their actions, I feel their embrace, and I see their brotherly love. That’s our command, to love one another as He loves us.

1 John 3:18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth”. -and- I John 4:11, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Though I may have a harder time saying with my words, let my actions always speak, I love you.