I Love You

A couple nights ago I was teaching a class on Lordship. We discussed Jesus' role as Lord of our lives. The theory goes that Jesus had to be one of 3 things: a liar, a lunatic or Lord of all. You will have to either attend Starting Point or ask me personally how that all plays out but it causes some good discussion. During the discussion, the subject came up on loving others. I made the comment that "some people are hard to love." A couple people kind of confronted me on my statement, which is fine by me. I think it came out wrong but it stirred conversation so I did not attempt to correct it. The subject though did stick in my mind. As part of my Bible study today I went to BibleGateway.com and did a word search on the word "love" in the New Testament. In the NIV, the word love is used 258 times in one form or another. I read each verse but the one that really kept haunting me is Matthew 22:39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Now historically for me, this is a tall order. As I get older and spent more time trying to learn about Christ and how He wants me to live, I am learning that I can do this.......if I want to. I have always been a very internally competitive person. I have discovered that this type of personality trait can have a very negative side effect. It makes me judgemental towards others. There are times that I can just look at a person and form an opinion. The biggest problem with that is that the more I get to know people, I find that my first impression is rarely accurate. I have found that usually, I am the idiot, not them.
Not one time have I read where Jesus approaches a person, forms an opinion and then moves on. Even when it says they He "knew their heart," he still took the time to be with them.
If you love someone, you want to know them as well as you can. This requires listening, not talking. I am trying to learn to listen to people. By listening, I am giving myself the chance to get to know them so that I can form an educated opinion of them.
Just 2 verses earlier in Matthew 22:37 it says "Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'" I guess that means that if my theory holds true, if I love God, I need to listen to Him.