It is hard to love people who are different from us. It is much easier to group together around ethnicity or social class—giving your time and energy to build relationships is costly. But that is what Christ is calling us to do. He is the one who loved us even though we were unlovely. He is the one who came to spend time in the presence of sinners, patiently teaching his disciples, bearing with their sins and failures. He also came to deliver us from the hand of the Lord, the hand of judgment which rightly ought to have exiled us from God’s presence for all eternity. Instead of death, he welcomed us into rest and fellowship.

Therefore we are to give ourselves to loving our Christian brothers and sisters because Christ has first loved us and he has joined us together in his church.¹