When we consider the words of Jesus, we find that His greatest command is to love God and to love all His creations. We all claim to love God, yet we often fail to love others. Why do we struggle to love His creations? We tend to love only those who love us in return. We only know how to love those we are familiar with. We look for shared experiences or common ground before extending love. We find it difficult to love those who hate us. Too often, our love is conditional—driven by what we can gain rather than by genuine care.
What we must understand is this: mankind is God’s creation. God is the creator of everything—both what we perceive as good and what we perceive as evil. There is no other creator apart from Him. He formed both Cain and Abel. So, can we claim to love God while choosing to hate Cain? It is easy to love the Abels of this world—the ones who are agreeable or righteous in our eyes. But Jesus calls us to love the Cains in our lives as well.
Barriers To Love
Why do we love God? We say we love Him because He loved us first. He has always been there for us, standing by our side and accepting us just as we are. But unlike God, who loves unconditionally, the people around us—including our own brothers and sisters—often do not express love first, making it difficult for us to love them in return. Since no one in this world can love us as deeply and purely as God does, we must not depend solely on reciprocal love in our relationships. Instead, our love for others must be initiated by us, even when it is not returned.
One major obstacle in loving our own brothers and sisters is sibling rivalry. We often compete for approval, especially in our families. When our siblings don’t respond with love, we’re tempted to stop loving them in return. Another barrier is envy. Where envy thrives, hatred is never far behind. Even Jesus’ own brothers struggled with envy, resisting His authority. The religious leaders—Pharisees and Sadducees—also felt insecure in His presence, and their envy grew into hostility so great that they plotted His death. This same pattern appears in the story of Joseph. When he shared the dreams God gave him, his brothers were consumed by jealousy and sold him into slavery. Even the friends of Job, who seemed wise at first, later revealed their true hearts during his suffering—responding with jealousy and judgment instead of compassion. These examples remind us that where envy exists, love is often the first casualty.
We often live fake lives—showing love to people in church but going home and complaining about them behind their backs. Material jealousy also fuels this behaviour. A famous example is the marketing slogan from a television brand in the 90s: “Neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride,” even using the devil as its mascot. Companies understand how envy works and deliberately market their products to provoke it. Today, many products aren’t purchased simply for their usefulness or comfort, but so that others will notice and feel jealous—like phone cases designed to showcase the Apple logo. This reveals how deeply pride can influence us and how easily we become part of a culture that fosters envy, often without even realising it.
Another barrier to love is the desire to take revenge or at least to “get even” with those who have hurt us. We convince ourselves that we must let them know we’ve had enough. But how did Joseph respond to his brothers? He said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” Paul offers similar counsel when he urges us to “overcome evil with good.” Is that our response? If we continue to trust in and anchor ourselves in God’s love—even when the devil tries to convince us otherwise—we will find the strength to love even the most difficult people. Worldly love is based on “give and take,” but God calls us to something higher—a love that takes the first step. It is up to us to overcome envy, jealousy, and the desire for revenge through the goodness that only God can produce within us.
Praying For Our Persecutors
It’s one thing to love our family and friends—they may hurt us, but they are still easier to love. Yet Jesus takes it a step further. He doesn’t stop at those close to us. He calls us to love even our enemies.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Matthew 5:43-44 (NIV)
Do we ever pray for our enemies? We might say we pray for our enemies, but often those prayers sound like this: “God, help them see the truth,” or “Correct them from their evil ways,” or even, “Lord, please stop them from harming me today.” But are we truly praying for God to bless them the way we pray for those we love? Rarely do our prayers sound like, “Lord, bless my enemy.”
Why should we love our enemies—those who plan to harm us? Because Jesus gave us one clear command: to love. Without obeying this, we cannot truly call ourselves His followers. We must remember that Jesus died not only for us but also for those we consider our enemies. They too are God’s children, created and loved by Him.
Why are we not able to love all of God’s creations? Perhaps it’s because we fail to see our enemies as His creations—and in doing so, we question God’s authority as the ultimate creator. The truth is, our inability to love everyone reveals something deeper: we don’t truly love God; we simply fear Him. If we claim to love God yet hate His children, we are deceiving ourselves. When we genuinely love someone, we love everything connected to them—their family, even their possessions.
Think of how people who admire someone tend to love their children, even when they’re mischievous, or appreciate the things they own. A simple illustration is how dogs and cats can live together under one roof, in peace, obeying their master. Animals aren’t deceived by Satan, yet he easily plants seeds of hatred in human hearts. And let’s be honest: on our own, we cannot love—not truly. By our own strength, we can’t love our enemies, let alone pray for their well-being. We need God’s love at work within us to do what He commands.
Suppressing Our Desires
Just as medical breakthroughs like Ozempic or other diet suppressants help people control their appetite and lose excess weight, and nicotine patches or gums assist smokers in overcoming addiction, something similar is offered to us spiritually. In both cases, however, the individual must first have the desire to change—without that, no pill or patch can work. Likewise, following Jesus and walking in His ways acts as a powerful suppressant—it weakens our desire to sin, to envy, to seek revenge, or to outdo others, and it softens the hatred we hold toward our brothers.
However many of us resist this spiritual “pill.” We want to hold on to our revenge, spread gossip, expose others’ faults, and cling to hatred. Cain was offered this pill—a chance to suppress the sin already stirring in his heart—but he rejected it, too consumed by his desire for revenge. Through Jesus, we are offered that same choice again. Will we receive it and be healed, or refuse it as Cain did?
We need to stop being afraid of God and start loving Him first—only then can we truly love His creations. Job came to understand this and prayed for his friends even after they hurt him (Job 42:10). Jesus Himself set the ultimate example on the cross when He forgave the very people who crucified Him (Luke 23:34). Ananias also learned this when God sent him to pray for Saul, his persecutor (Acts 9:15). Once we are rooted in this God-given identity, we can pour out His love freely. And such love, grounded in God, will never fail.
The Jordan Valley 
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