Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. - 1 John 4:7

Do you play chess?

Some experts say the best age to start learning to play is as early as six years old. So you may be a bit behind if you haven’t started yet.

Here’s a chess game that might be just right for you: Human chess.

This was introduced around AD 735 by Charles Martel, who was the duke of Austrasia, which was in northern Europe. Martel would play the game on giant boards with real people.

That leads me to another thought about our friends: Do we sometimes treat them like pieces on a game board? Like if someone kind of irritates you, you don’t let him or her sit by you at lunch. You play chess—moving that person away from you. You can probably think of other examples.

God has a better idea. He says we are to see people as created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). They are objects of God’s love (John 3:16), and they deserve our love as well.

The apostle John wrote, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God” (1 John 4:7). Because God first loved us, we should love the people He created—not treat them like chess board figures.