Genuine love

So today's entry is something that I'm not that good at. I was reading 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and I read a commentary afterwards. In the commentary they talked about how Paul guinely loved these people. Paul didn't just come to share a sermon with these people then leave. Paul did share the gospel with the Thessalonians but he also showed them the gospel, the love of Christ. At the end of chapter 2 Paul expresses his longing to be with these people again. When Paul was with them he didn't do this to trick them to believing what he had to tell them, he did this because he had the love of Christ in him and it overflowed on to them.
How are we doing when it comes to genuinely loving God's people? Do we invest the time and effort that God asks of us? Remember the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor.(Mark 12:31) I'm not here to make you feel bad if you're not doing this, remember I told you that I'm bad at this. I just feel like the Lord is asking us to make sure we are genuinely loving on his people. When pastor Joe says things like "doing life with eachother" we use to joke about that. But he has that right. Just as Paul did, we need to make sure that we aren't just hanging out with people just to preach a sermon of Jesus's love but we show them the love of Christ. Paul did whatever it took to show the people that he truley cared for them. It wasn't like this idea just came to him, he had the best example of this kind of love... Jesus! Here's a few scriptures to remind you of how Paul modeled his love for people after:

1. John 10:11
   "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
2. John 15:13
   Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 
3. 1 John 3:16
   This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

So my prayer for us is that we would love people the way Jesus does. I pray that he would give us the capacity to love as he did and the desire to love as he did. I pray that we would take our eyes off ourselves and start putting them on the people that God has placed in our lives. I pray that God would give us the strength and faith to let God be God.