For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Galatians 5:14

Love is the answer- to this crooked, evil, and unforgiving world. Love is the answer to the dysfunctional families. Love is the answer to the chaotic, cold, and indifferent workplaces. Have you noticed how the Christmas season is totally different from the entire year? Over the Christmas season, we often feel a somber, joyful, unspoken presence of love in the air. It’s the music, the lights, and the excitement of giving. We are focused on preparing for this one big day which carries through the entire month of December, or until December 26. That’s the day, when the world goes back to normal. Don’t you ever wish that the feeling could last the whole year through? I think, when we are focused on loving one another, we have little room in our hearts to hate, to be impatient, or apathetic.

Love transforms terrible marriages, restores broken children, and rebuilds unliveable communities. The world we know was built on love. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Yet, instead of love, we are bombarded with hate, violence, and evil. By the time children go to school, they are faced with envy, unkindness, distrust, and rudeness. From every angle, you see the opposite of love. Our world, though created by love, seeks to create in us this spirit of hate. Have you ever asked yourself why? Why is it so easy to express hate towards others, rather than show love?

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Our past dictates the person we are. We allow our early interactions with our loved ones to become the voices in our heart that plays like a record years later. Our parents abandoned us, and now we no longer feel deserving of love from others. Our parents abused us, and we in turn abuse others. Someone in our early lives told us we were nothing, and now, we consider ourselves nothing. Have you ever asked yourself why you do that? Why do we let people of our past control our thoughts even when we turn adults? The only voice we ought to listen to is the voice of God, the one that calls us a chosen people, holy and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12). I think we catch the spirit of hate quicker than the spirit of love, and we don’t notice when we have diseased hearts. We can’t tell when we are hurting others with our words, actions, or thoughts. We begin to say things like, I am the way I am, because to change seems too hard.

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But, this we know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). In other words, we have to let Christ come into our hearts and scrape out all that hate, all the damage that the world did to us. This is the thing, during the Christmas season, we are our best selves. The world tells us to stop all the hate, and bring our Christmas cheer. Be happy and jolly and spend our money on gifts. But, we don’t have to wait for Christmas to transform our hearts. We can actually do it all year round. We don’t need a special occasion to show love, whether through gifting others, doing acts of service, or words of kindness. Look for ways to show love, and you will be surprised to see how love will literally transform the broken, indifferent, and hateful attitudes around you. First, let YOUR heart be transformed by love through Christ, and then you will be surprised to see how easy it will be to love your neighbour as yourself.