St. Mary Church in Paw Paw shared a message from the pastor about love in the Sept. 6 bulletin.

The Rev. Joseph Xavier wrote that it can be incredibly difficult to be patient with those who wrong us; but the Bible tells us that we must never do any evil to anyone, instead showing them love.

This is because if we want to enter into the kingdom of God, we must show the fruits of being his followers by loving those around us.

“He is perfectly right, because the Kingdom of God is ruled by love and a Christian community that does not glow with love is unsatisfactory,” Fr. Xavier said in the bulletin.

Love is many things. Love is a concern for the welfare of others and for helping those who need us. This means speaking up when those around us are doing evil, as we are responsible for it if we know that something is wrong and say nothing. 

Love as a concern is not, however, having warm and fuzzy emotions about someone. Love as a concern means being willing to take up a fault we have with someone and be willing to discuss it in situations where we believe that repentance is needed.

Love as a concern also should draw us together as followers of Christ to worship and pray to him in times of struggle.

“Is there a way to repair the breach, to rebuild the bridge and to restore the relationship?" Xavier asked. "We know for sure that God gives us a vital key to restore relationships. And that key is love.” 

If we truly are following God, we will find ourselves loving those around us as God loves them, and focusing less on ourselves and more on Christ and those who are in need of our love.