Encouragement for Today

January 22, 2025 The Love You Can Give Is Enough ALLI PATTERSON Lee en español

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5 (NIV)

The command to “love your neighbor as yourself,” found in Galatians 5:14 (NIV), used to overwhelm me. I felt like Jesus was asking me to love everyone with the same level of intimacy and commitment as I love my husband or my best friend. It left me feeling like nothing I did to love others was ever good enough.

But I discovered a divine blueprint for relationships in Jesus’ life. Now, I have fresh eyes and the strength to love all my neighbors.

In a careful reading of the Gospels, it became clear to me that Jesus had five different types of relationships in His life: a core, a circle, comrades, a community and crowds. Jesus needed all these relationships, just like we do, for a thriving human life. He was not only fully God but also fully man, the ultimate example of God’s perfect design for the ecosystem of human connection.

How I love others changed when I saw what was at the center of this divine design: a connection to the Father. This connection to the Source held up every other relationship in Jesus’ life. It enabled Him to welcome others wherever He encountered them — never trying to meet His own needs at others’ expense or avoid connection — truly loving others in all spaces. We have the same invitation to be filled with the love of God through His Spirit! And we won’t be free enough to love others without Him.

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Jesus was free to embody love, in all its different forms, to anyone from a stranger to His best friend or mother. His love was patient and kind, not just seeking what was easiest in the moment. He freely gave and received, never holding grudges or becoming jealous. The love of Jesus looked all different ways. He always loved, but He loved each person in their own unique way!

And we can do the same! This truth is key to fulfilling the command to love our neighbors as ourselves. Depending upon the type of relationship, Jesus’ love looked different, sometimes leading with gentleness and intimacy, sometimes saying “no” and setting boundaries. He was free enough to act in any way that ascribed worth to another person, even if it cost Him something. The Source at His center was always renewing and overflowing with love.

Loving others isn’t a religious exercise; it’s the very heart of God on display. This could mean simply looking a stranger in the face with a warm smile instead of ignoring them … telling the truth instead of making an excuse … forfeiting your plans in order to help a friend. In Christ, you are free to love people the way you are uniquely able.

Come with me to start loving others in a better way.

Lord, wherever I go today, show me what love looks like for each person I encounter — help me be free to love in whatever way I can, knowing that’s enough. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

OUR FAVORITE THINGS

Find out how you can help your soul thrive and fight loneliness by redesigning your relationships in Blueprint for Belonging: The 5 Relationships Jesus Needed and Why You Need Them Too by Alli Patterson.

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FOR DEEPER STUDY

Galatians 5:14, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (NIV).

Write down three different kinds of people you will see today (family, a friend, a colleague, a stranger, etc.), and ask the Spirit to reveal how love looks different for each.

© 2025 by Alli Patterson. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 31 Ministries thanks Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group for their sponsorship of today’s devotion.

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