He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:8, NKJV
I remember years ago, on my second trip to Indonesia to hold evangelistic meetings, I fell in love with a wonderful fruit called mangosteen. No, it’s not a mango. It’s small with purplish skin. Inside are large seeds covered with a white, soft, sweet layer of deliciousness. I knew I had found my heavenly fruit. Yes, this must have been what tempted Eve, for it tempted me.
On the second night of our meetings, I shared with the audience that I had fallen in love with mangosteens. That brought a smile to their faces—and large bags of mangosteens to me. From the third night, until I left Indonesia, I always had that wonderful fruit with my dinner.
On that same visit, I was introduced to another fruit called durian. I must confess I never attempted to taste the fruit because of its obnoxious scent. The people of Indonesia, and most of Southeast Asia, love this fruit, saying it tastes like heaven. Really? You can smell this fruit a mile away! It’s so bad that hotels will not serve it, and airlines will not let people bring it on board. Yet, it is still a beloved fruit to many people in this part of the world.
People remind me of these two fruits. Some are like mangosteens. Easy to love. Easy to talk to and beautiful personalities. Others are like durian. Bitter. Angry. Critical. When you see them coming, you walk the other way. Yet today’s text says that if I don’t love others, I don’t know God. God’s love is not only indwelling, healing, and affirming in my life, but He wants to love others through me in the same way—to touch the lives of the “durian” people around me.
How do we love difficult people, whether family, neighbors, coworkers, or strangers? As human beings, our ability to love is limited to the “mangosteen” people we meet. We love them as long as they love us and treat us with love. But to love the “durian” people in our lives . . . that comes only from God, because “love is of God” (1 John 4:7, NKJV). He is the only source of unselfish love, and He offers that love to us—so we can share that love with others.
It’s possible. The love we give to others—whether to durian or mangosteen people—begins with God. And we can receive that love each day as we stay connected to Him.
So go out and love a durian person today, but first, take some time to be filled with God’s healing and unconditional love.
Heather-Dawn Small, General Conference Women's Ministries Director
Color My World With Love: ©2021 Pacific Press Publishing Association.