11/01/2021
As we hear the greatest commandment which is to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strengths, do we get so absorbed in doing this that we forget the second great commandment, or fail to give it the attention we should? Do we not love our neighbor, and one another, as we should, with the love that God has instilled in us for them? In this bitter world where people distrust one another, hate with reckless abandon, and place themselves above all others, it is easy to see how even a Christian might be tempted to find loving others in this manner to be impossible, and retreat back into the first great commandment where they can love God who loves them so perfectly. Yet we do not love as we are personally able, but with the love that God has given us… the ability that Jesus speaks of allows us to love one another without fail.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””
John 13:34-35 ESV
We can find it hard to love one another, and our neighbors because they too are struggling at this. When we are in church and another believer says something hurtful to us, it is easy to turn our backs and walk away from them… taking any love we might have had for them with us as we go. If we behave this way towards one another then how do we expect to love our neighbors, let alone our enemies?
“And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:47-48 ESV
Scripture tells us to be perfect in our love, but what a challenge this proves to be for us! We love God, but fall short of loving Him with all of our heart, or we love our brothers in Christ, but only if they love us too, and perhaps we love our neighbors, but only when they agree with our politics, or views of the world. So, how can we ever love our enemies… even a little bit? There is only one way possible, and that is by asking God in prayer to fill us with His love.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8 ESV
Wow… what a revelation this is! We are told by Jesus to forgive so that God will forgive us, and now we read that we must love before we can actually know Him. Is this how we approach love in our lives? Do we love our God, spouses, families, friends, neighbors, enemies, and even Jesus, as we should?
“And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”
1 John 3:23 ESV
When I was a boy, growing up on military bases, using foul language was more than an occasional thing, it was part of a soldier’s everyday vocabulary. So as a boy who was around it all the time I learned to cuss with the best of them. I could call someone a name that I didn’t even know the meaning of, and make them believe it! Of course, if I used such language at home there was hell to pay! This all changed though when I accepted Jesus as my savior. Oh, the engrained ability to break into a free flowing diatribe of obscenity was just beneath the thin rind of my new faith that, and when provoked it would surface violently and with fluency. But my Christian friends and I would say “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” And this had the effect of hitting the reset button on the offender, and their faith was reestablished.
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”
Galatians 6:1 ESV
Slipping from loving someone to detesting, or lashing out at them can happen just about as quickly as a seasoned grade school curser can pick it up again, and just like in my group of young Christian friends, someone needs to step up and help us by calling us into account by hitting our reset button of love. Maybe we need to hear “Does God love you like that?”, or maybe use today’s very common reset question… “what would Jesus do?”
“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
James 5:19-20 ESV
It takes loving someone to correct them, and it takes love to receive that correction without adding another name to our list of disliked people, but if a friend helps us in this way then we both benefit… we regain our disciplined faith, and they will be saving their own soul as well. So, in such a light I ask that we each examine the love that is in us today, and determine if it flows from us. Are we loving one another as we should? Are we getting irritated, or losing our temper when we shouldn’t? Have we retreated into loving God, and using our dedication to this as an excuse for not loving others as we have been commanded to do? God loved us when we were yet sinners, and this is the perfect love that He wants us to share with Him!
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
1 John 4:11-12 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for loving us and sending your Son to redeem us by His life, death, resurrection, and ascension… all as a result of your perfect love for us, and His joining you in it. Help us Lord to love as you do; not only by loving our family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ, but by loving those who at first glance appear unlovable. Teach us how to turn our disdain into compassion, and our short tempers into long suffering. Transform our instincts into your perfect love, and open out eyes to the fact that this your greatest gift to us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who loves us perfectly, and eternally. Praised be your name for every soul that is brought to you out of the perfect witness of our love. Wonderful are you who restores souls through loving correction, and merciful are you who provides the manna of your Word to sinners that they might be saved by knowing you your commandments, and the love they speak into us. Wash us in the blood of Jesus that runs red with love, and is confirmed by His obedience to your will. Call us your beloved, and hear us as we call you Abba, our Father, whom we love without bounds. Take our hand Lord, and place in it the key to our salvation… your love.
“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
1 John 3:18 ESV
Rich Forbes