As a child growing up, one of the first songs I learned to sing was Jesus Loves Me.
Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
The Bible tells me so
As I grew older and learned what these words really meant, it was comforting. I also began to learn that I should love God as He loves me. One of the first commandments was, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut 6:4-7).
I also learned that we should love others, and they should love us as well. The phrase “love one another” is found in the New Testament at least a dozen times. “All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 14:35).
There still remains the fact that there are those we do not like, and also those who don’t care for us. You may hear someone say, “I don’t care whether people like me or not,” but they are not really telling the truth. For one of the deepest drives of human nature is the desire to be appreciated or liked. The longing to be held in esteem, to be sought after, is fundamental in all of us.
It is a fact of life that there are those who will not like you. It is like the little poem, “I do not love thee, Dr. Fell. The reason why I cannot tell. But this alone I know full well. I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.” Perhaps if the author had known Dr. Fell more personally he might have come to like him, perhaps not.
Even the Bible recognizes this unhappy fact about human nature, for it says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18). The Bible is a realistic book and the Lord who wrote it knows people.
We must not forget that God’s word proclaims, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalms 139:14). Hebrews 13:5 reminds us, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” Sometimes when we feel we are all alone, unloved, and unappreciated, we should remember what Jesus Christ went through.
Jesus Christ deserved glory, but was humbled. He deserved love, but he was hated by many. He deserved worship, but many rejected him. He deserved praise, but he was scorned by many. He deserved riches, but he became poor for us. He deserved honor, but he took our sins upon himself. In spite of all that, Jesus never lost his thankfulness to God, because he could see the end in sight. Hebrews 12:2 says of Christ, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” By contrast, we deserve humility, but receive glory. We deserve hate but receive divine love. We deserve rejection, but God gives us sonship. We deserve scorn, but we receive affection. We deserve poverty, but he gives us riches. We deserve sin’s curse, but he gives us righteousness.
So when we feel we have been forsaken and nobody cares, we must remember the song from our childhood. Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so. “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31)?
Pastor Jake Stirnemann