John 4

Loving the unloveable

There are some people in my life who hurt me Whenever I get hurt, a shell forms around me that protects me. Over the years, my shell has gotten a little harder with every broken relationship, every family argument, every stab in the back. There are some who continually make poor choices, those who continually do or say hurtful things. These people easily frustrate me. I have a tendency to tolerate people for a limited time, then I snap and decide I am done, I am not going to take it anymore. Relationship over; shell thicker. I am not naive enough to think I am the only one with these experiences. I also recognize that God often puts challenging relationships in our lives to teach us a thing or two.

Read John 4:5-29. The Samaritan woman in this passage had lived a life full of poor choices (going from man to man and now living with a man she wasn't married to). She was a Samaritan, which means a Jewish man like Jesus, culturally speaking, shouldn't have been talking to her in the first place. Add her poor choices on top of it, and it was a real mess for Jesus to be talking to her at the well.

Jesus showed love to everyone. He did not suffer from the impatience syndrome the way we do. If someone did something hurtful to Him or just continued to make poor decisions, He loved them anyway. While the story refers to only one meeting of Jesus and this woman, history would tell us He would have spoken to her every time! Jesus knew everything she had ever done—good and bad, and He approached her anyway. He became acknowledged her even though no one else wanted to. Jesus knew everything about her and loved her anyway. I tend to give up on people after only knowing just a little about them.

We see towards the end of this passage that because Jesus spent time with and loved her, she started doing more good things than bad. For example she started talking to people about Jesus.

It is hard to love and be nice to someone when you know all the bad things they have done. But if we want to be like Jesus, it is something we must try to do. When I can’t do it on my own I ask God to help me, and He does. What if we treated everyone kindly no matter their behavior; no matter how they treated us?

Can you think of a person or people in your life who test your every last nerve? Do you find it difficult sometimes to care for people or treat them kindly even though they have hurt you maybe over and over again? What would it look like if we always responded to people in this way?

Lord, please help me to love the unloveable people in my life. Teach me to have grace and patience with those who hurt me. Show me Your ways Lord; show me how you do it every day. Show me how to be more like you with others.