Loving people before you approve

I’ll spare you a second straight post on love tomorrow, but let’s start preparing for the Love Wins study with some simple discussion!

Everyone wants to be approved (loved). Some people just want a few people to appreciate them, and some believe the world should appreciate them. Instead of loving their enemies, they expect everyone (including their enemies) to love them. We all receive love in different ways, but I haven’t met a person yet that can live a life void of love. Some sure are good at faking it though!

Digital Disciples need to be loved, don’t we? But the question I have to ask myself is, as a Digital Disciple living part of my life online, how do I love people as myself like Christ requires us to do in Matthew 22:39? Am I expecting people to love me before loving them? How exactly do we show each other love online? That sure seems like a strange, but difficult question!

Could I hop over to your blog or one of your social networking accounts and tell you that I love you without that seeming flat out odd? I don’t believe that would be necessary, thanks to 1 John 3:18 for clearing that up for us. Do I need to approve of every one of your blog posts or status updates before responding? I’m thankful for the privilege of getting to know each of you in a deeper way through stuff like this. Can love really win online? I think so! Let’s keep it simple and share a way or two that we’ve felt loved online by our peers? Or maybe a way that we’ve felt the opposite / rejected?