Loving Others by Listening

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Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 1 John 4:7-21

"I care for you. I respect your uniqueness. How you feel and what you say matters to me. And in order to make this clear, I'm willing to set aside my own concerns, give you space to share yourself and offer you my focused attention. I want to try to understand the inexhaustible mystery of your inner world."

This is the way that the author of our current Wednesday morning bible study suggests viewing listening in order to remind ourselves to be present and truly listen to others.

In our most recent chapter, titled "Loving Those Closest to Us", Trevor Hudson says that there are three things we can do to be loving Christ-followers:

Confession

Listening

Conscious loving actions (compassion)

Focusing on "Listening" for this devotion, the things that stood out to me in the chapter include being aware that listening is one of the "most precious gifts we can give to someone we love". Also, that "consciously making the effort to listen well involves three basic ground rules: respectful silence, total attention, and appropriate response". 

Make an "appointment" with a loved one in your life, and practice listening!

Donna Gustafson