8. In my spiritual community, our love for each other is important in helping me love others outside of our community.

(Before looking at the questions below, take a few minutes to think about this statement. Invite Jesus to speak to you about what He would like you to notice.) 

We know that God loves us unconditionally and doesn’t need anything back from us. How would you weigh your own ability to love without conditions?

If you wanted to increase your ability to love unconditionally, how might you do this?

How could a community of people you love and trust help you grow your capacity to love without conditions?

Spiritual communities are characterized by deep loving relationships among their members. Every person has a need to be loved as they are, without conditions. Spiritual communities can meet some of this need. Spiritual communities can be a place where we learn to love others. In the context of a spiritual community we can develop our capacity to love unconditionally, freely, willingly, and without needing anything back. 

Spiritual communities are a place where we can practice loving others in a mature way. In this safe environment we can fail without condemnation, learn from others, and grow our capacity to love unconditionally. 

Several things happen as we develop our capacity to love in this way. We find that as our ability to love others increases, our ability to receive love also increases. This leads not only to experiencing more love from others, but also to having a greater capacity to receive God’s love. In a spiritual community we come to understand what it is like to love without conditions and we realize that we appreciate being loved in this a way. We see this kind of love being practiced and we get a picture of what it would be like for us to love this way, too. 

As we love and receive love from others and God, we find in turn that our relationships with others and God deepen and grow. At this point it can be tempting to stop growing and just enjoy the love and warmth we are experiencing within this beautiful spiritual community. But our journey in learning to love well will not be complete without loving those outside our community who may not love us back. 

Jesus invites us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44) so that our capacity to love unconditionally and purely will continue to grow and develop. Although it may be good for our enemy, Jesus’ primary objective in this invitation is for our own good. Jesus is always working for our best. He knows that as our ability to love others increases we will experience greater abundance in our lives and greater love from God. 

Spiritual communities help us develop our capacity for a purer love by modeling it, giving us opportunities to practice it, and encouraging us when we choose to love those from whom our love might never be returned.