Who would you say is your “beloved.”

Romans 16:5, Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia. Romans 16:8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Romans 16:9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. I chose to look at these three verses together today because Paul referred to Epaenetus, Ampliatus, and Stachys as his “beloved, or beloved in the Lord.” When is the last time you thought of someone as your “beloved”? And if you did, what led you to refer to them as “beloved”? The word Paul used is a form of the term agape. It’s one you love dearly, deeply, unconditionally. As we live to love with Jesus, surely Jesus will love some specially through you like He did the apostle John. John referred to himself four times in his gospel as the one “whom Jesus loved.” He knew Jesus loved him. This reminds me of something Jerry White, my beloved friend and mentor shared with my wife. It was something like this. “One of the most important questions I ask myself with regard to my relationships is this: Do they know I love them?” I might add, “Do they know Jesus loves them through me?” I’m sure that’s included in what Jerry meant. Imagine one event in eternity when you meet Epaenetus, Ampliatus, and Stachys in heaven. You ask them, “Did you know that Paul loved you dearly in Jesus and that Jesus loved you dearly in Paul?” It’s not difficult for me to imagine their heads nodding in the affirmative. If you asked Epaenetus how he knew Paul loved him, he would probably say that he shared the gospel with him and it led to his conversion. Let’s ask ourselves these questions to encourage ourselves to live to love with Jesus. Do the people in our lives know that we love them? How do they know we love them? And if we’re in doubt, Holy Spirit, what shall we do to communicate that we love them with Jesus? Father, anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You, so You will know that we love You. And so that we can love those You put in our paths today, to the degree that they know they are “beloved” by us, in Your name, for Your glory.