Love is no trouble; love is more pleasant, more healthful, more saving to the heart...he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

  - Columbanus, Sermon XI (Irish, 7th century)

"I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

  - John 17.26

I confess that I find Columbanus' comment about love a bit troubling. No trouble? Really? I agree that loving creates pleasantness, promotes spiritual health, and brings the salvation of the Lord more fully to the heart. I even know that it fulfills the Law.

But no trouble? I can't imagine that people who know me very well would say that loving me is "no trouble." Sinner that I am, and prone to self-interest, I'm sure I offend a good many people who know they should love me and perhaps struggle mightily to do so.

There are people whom I find it a good deal of trouble to love. They irritate me. I can't understand why they do what they do, act the way they act, say the kinds of things they say. They drive me nuts. Do I love them? Well, I hope so. But it's a lot of trouble to do so.

At least for me.

But that's just the product of my own strength, isn't it. That's just me trying to work up love for someone who doesn't strike me as particularly lovable, and that's why it's so much trouble. Columbanus was talking about love the way Jesus was in His conversation with His Father.

Love comes easily to those who know the Father, Who commune daily with Him, see the glory in Jesus' face, experience His presence with them always, and walk in the power of the Spirit. The hard part of loving us - for God, that is - is finished. Jesus said so on the cross.

Now we can know the love of God through Jesus, and, when we know that love truly, loving others comes a whole lot easier. To know that we are loved, in spite of what we know about how sinful and selfish we actually are, and to dwell daily and really in the glory of that love, makes it easier to love the irritating and unlovable people with whom we consort each day.

We love them not with our love, but with God's - love mediated to us and through us by Jesus, Who lives in and through us to love those whom we might prefer to ignore. It's no trouble for Jesus to love those we have trouble loving. And we only have trouble loving them when we try to do so on our own strength, rather than from the vantage point and in the power of the indwelling Christ.

"Love is no trouble." Not for the Lord, because He is love. And when we seek Him, commune with Him, yield to Him, and walk in obedience to Him, love can come without trouble through us as well.

And that is the point of our discipleship (Jn.13.35).

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.