And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. —1 John 4:21.
Some things are very simple. We can’t love God and refuse to love each other. This is not hard to understand. On the other hand, some of our “kinfolks” in the Lord and in our families are just downright hard to love because they can be so difficult. But, we need to remember who we were when Christ died for us —powerless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God (Romans 5:6-11). Yet God loved us and sent Jesus to save us even when we weren’t deserving. So before we whine about our “hard-to-live-with” fellow believers, we had better give thanks that God loved us when we were “hard-to-love” sinners. Then, we need to thank God for his grace by being more loving with each other.