“Come on people now! Smile on your brother. Everybody get together, try to love one another right now!”

These words I am sure are familiar to many of you. They are from a popular song that made the top hits’ chart for a number of weeks a few years back. A philosophy of living is spelled out in this song, which our world desperately needs.

Another popular song is “A Thing Called Love.” So much of our contemporary music dramatically calls to our attention the need of being loving or caring persons in a thing-possessed world.

The need to love and to be loved is basic to creative living. It is a must to us as we seek to be stable and sensitive persons. Unfortunately, most of the time we overlook this attitude in our dealings with others.

We transfer so much of our love to things rather than to persons. As the Country Parson put it in one of our newspapers, “We spend half our time bitter against someone, half our time unconcerned about anyone — and the rest of our time practicing Christian love.”

This does not add up mathematically or emotionally. We always come out on the losing end in this kind of attitude.

“Smile on your brother — and sister.” If there is any truth that is repeated over and over again in the Bible, it is that God is our Father and all men are brothers. The common denominator in human relationships is that we all need to be loved, and we need to love others.

“Everybody get together, try to love one another right now.” This must be more than a feeling. It must be an act of our wills. This seems to emphasize the absolute need of a daily loving concern for other people.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians stressed in the thirteenth chapter the supreme worth of Christian love. This kind of love is not mere feeling or emotion. It involves our will to accomplish the desired effect.

This love shows compassion and concern. It cares for the physical, mental, material, and spiritual needs of all people. This includes getting involved through the use of our time, our abilities, and our material goods in helping others. We have the privilege as well as the responsibility of being love agents. We are blessed with so many things that can aid us in being instruments of love to others.

The challenge to express Christlike love is ever before us.