Love people? You must be kidding!

Love your enemies? You must be joking!

But the work of God in our lives enables us to love others, because He loves us first. Because He loves us, we can learn how to love others. At Gateway, we are learning that God's love reaches through all of our own insecurities and establishes something new and sweet.

To love people is God's second greatest commandment to us, similar to the first , but not the same as the first. People loving people is only possible because God first loved us. As we come to understand that God loves us, we are then able to truly love others.

How are we to love people? That is, to what degree are we to love people?

We are to love them as we love ourselves! That is, we are to love them to the same degree that we love ourselves!

This is so very challenging! God says that we are to love other people with the same strength and attitude that we use when we love ourselves.

But some people may ask, "but if I love others as I love myself, then will there be any love left for me?" This fear is the very reason that we must know that God loves us, because if we didn't, we would then fear loving others. Don't worry, God has enough love for everyone! This is the royal law of Scripture, to love others as you love yourself.