You’re reading JESUS: LESSONS IN LOVE, by Eric Elder, featuring thirty inspiring devotionals based on the greatest “lover” of all time, Jesus Christ. Also available in paperback and eBook formats in our bookstore for a donation of any size!

Scripture Reading: Matthew 2 

Part of loving others involves seeing people as God sees them.  Sometimes that takes more effort than other times!

One of the hardest, but most rewarding, parts of my ministry, is listening to people as they share some of their deepest personal sins they’ve committed, and listening to the pain that it’s caused them, God and others.  It’s hard, because I’m torn between wanting to cry and wanting to run away as they pour out things that are truly unsettling.  But it’s rewarding, because I know that their confession often leads to greater healing than they’ve ever known before.  As the Bible says:

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16a). 

But in the midst of listening to people confess their sins, I’m also torn in another way:  I’m torn in my feelings towards them as people.  I want to love them, but because of what they’re telling me, I sometimes wonder how I can.   How can God do it?  How can He continue loving people, knowing what they’ve done?  And how can I?

Matthew 2 gives me a clue:  God loves people because He sees their lives from beginning to end.  He created them.  He knows them intimately.  And He sees them not only for what they are, but also for what they are to become.

The verses in Matthew 2 show us how much care God took to see that Jesus was born, in the right place, at the right time, and how much God was involved in moving Jesus through those early years of His life in ways that kept Him alive and on course to fulfill the purposes for which God sent Him to earth.

• Micah foretold, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem (see Micah 5:2).
• Hosea foretold that Jesus would later return from Egypt, saying, “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1).  
• Jeremiah foretold that there would be suffering back in Bethlehem on account of Christ, saying there would be “weeping and great mourning” (Jeremiah 31:15).

If God knew these things about Jesus’ life, but no one else’s, I might not be convinced that God takes the same care with each of us.  But God knows each of us just as intimately, and has unique purposes for each of our lives.

• David says:  “All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16b). 
• God told Jeremiah:  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). 
• Isaiah said: “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name” (Isaiah 49:1b). 

And God foretold the births of people like Isaac and John the Baptist, even before they were conceived:

• “Then the LORD said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son’” (Genesis 18:10).  
• “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John” (Luke 1:13b). 

God knows each one of us, intimately, and He loves each one of us, even when we mess up terribly.  I think part of the reason is that He has the ability to see our lives from beginning to end.

That’s a good reminder for me when I see someone in the midst of their sin.  If I can see them as God sees them, then I’ll be much more likely to truly love them, and to truly help them get back on track with God’s plans for their lives.

Although I don’t naturally have the ability to see people as God sees them, I know God can give me that ability if I ask Him for it, the ability see people as He sees them, so I can love them as He loves them.

Prayer: Father, help me see people as You see them, so I can love them as You love them.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.