It’s not easy to “live peaceably with all” as Paul exhorts us in today’s epistle passage. Sometimes it’s not even easy to live with any. It is difficult to respond to others with love when we are reacting out of pain or anger or fear. It is well nigh impossible to feel like blessing those who hurt us. “Living in harmony with one another” often requires our turning the other cheek as Jesus admonished us in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt.5:39).

Take a few minutes to read the epistle lesson slowly, thoughtfully. Pause at the punctuation marks to reflect on how it speaks to you. Sit in silence for a bit, and let God use the scripture to open your heart to what it means for love to be genuine.

Notice these are all counsels to action, actions of the will, rather than reactions to our feelings of the moment. As a dear priest reminded me at my church years ago, “Love is what you do, not what you feel.” Only as we “persevere in prayer,” as we come to know the Holy One deep within, as we welcome God’s transforming hand at work in our lives, can we come to have such a willing spirit, such a compassionate heart. It is the healing grace of God that moves us from our self-centered focus to generous self-giving following the example of Christ Jesus.

Just think how different life would be today—at home—at church—in the community—in the political arena—if we practiced what we preached, if we chose to live “in harmony with one another” out of the deep, abiding love of God. We could relax in “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding” (Phil.4:7) and trust Love to lead the way so that we might indeed “live peaceably with all.”