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希伯来书：13:1-3 1你们务要常存弟兄相爱的心。2不可忘记用爱心接待客旅，因为曾有接待客旅的，不知不觉就接待了天使。3你们要记念被捆绑的人，好像与他们同受捆绑；也要记念遭苦害的人，想到自己也在肉身之内。
对我们自己教会的弟兄姐妹表达爱心似乎是相对容易的，或者至少应该是这样。但有时情况并非如此。但有时候情况并非如此。如果我们彼此都不能表现出爱心，那我们又怎能向上帝表达我们的爱呢？当你在我们自己教会里，甚至在我们自己身上看到缺乏爱心的行为时，一种简单的责备方式是这样的：“你这样说（做）是没有爱心的。” 这是我们都需要经常听到的悔改的呼唤。
而像基督那样的爱则会更进一步。比如怎样用爱心对待陌生人？亚伯拉罕接待了三个陌生人，他实际上是款待了天使和上帝本人。耶稣说：“这些事你们既做在我其中最小的身上，就是做在我身上了。” 在一场席卷罗马世界的瘟疫中，早期的基督徒照顾陌生人，借此他们不仅为自己也为他们敬拜的上帝赢得了好名声。
那些住在监狱里的人呢？是否很容易被遗忘？我记得以前的教会中有一个会友被关进监狱。在监狱里的第一个圣诞节对他很难熬。监狱不会因为圣诞节就让囚犯感觉好过些。没人前来探望。清汤寡水的饭菜。圣诞节过后的那个星期我去探访他，他给我看一大摞信件，都是我们教会的会友写给他的。他说，“现在我知道自己属于哪里了，以前和我混在一起的那些坏家伙什么也没给我。”二十年后，当我探访另一个姊妹教会时又遇到了他。他知道自己属于哪里，因为神家里的儿女没有忘记他。
上帝给你很多机会去关爱那些被别人忽视的人。可能是街区里新搬来的住户，可能是养老院里的那位老妇人，可能是住在监狱里的人，可能过年无法回家的大学生，可能是独居在家的老大爷。当我们知道自己是神的儿女时，我们基督徒的爱将会走得更远。
祷告：主耶稣，请赦免我的罪性导致的对别人漠不关心和自我中心的行为。请打开我的眼目，让我在那些孤独的人，被压迫的人，生病的人，被关在监狱里的人，在这些人身上看到你。请让你的爱在我的生命里闪耀，这样别人能看到我拥有一位多么奇妙的救主。阿们。
Hebrews 13: Continue to show brotherly love. 2 Do not fail to show love to strangers, for by doing this, some have welcomed angels without realizing it. 3 Remember those in prison, as if you were fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated, as if you yourselves were also suffering bodily. (EHV)
It’s relatively easy to show love for our brothers and sisters in our congregations. Or at least it should be. Sometimes that is not the case. How can we show the love of God in us if we cannot show the same love for each other? A simple form of rebuke when you witness unloving actions in our church or in ourselves is to say, “That’s not a very loving thing to say (or do).” It’s a call to repentance we all need to hear regularly.
Christ-like love goes further. How about love for strangers? Abraham welcomed three strangers and entertained angels and God himself. Jesus said, “Whatever you do to one of the least of these, you have done it for me.” Early Christians made a good name for themselves and for the God they worshipped by taking care of strangers during the plagues that swept through the Roman world.
How about those in prison? Are they easily forgotten? I remember a man in my former congregation who went to prison. The first Christmas in prison was difficult. Prisons don’t make it easy on prisoners at Christmas time. No visitors. Barebones meals. When I visited him the week after Christmas, he showed me a stack of letters from members of our church. “Now I know where I belong,” he said. “I didn’t get anything from the bad people I used to hang around with.” Twenty years later I was visiting one of our congregations and met him again. He knew where he belonged because God’s people did not forget him.
God gives you plenty of opportunities to show your love for the people everyone else overlooks. The new person on your block. The woman in the nursing home. The man in jail. The student who can’t go home for Thanksgiving. The homebound man who seems to be all alone. Christian love goes a long way in identifying who we are as God’s dearly loved people. Prayer: Lord Jesus, Forgive me for the neglect and self-centeredness of my sinful nature. Open my eyes to see you in the lonely, the downtrodden, the sick, and those in prison. Let your love so shine in my life that they may see what a wonderful Savior I have. Amen.