11/14/2021
There is a difference between loving someone as man does, and loving someone as God does. It is good to like others, but we are instructed in scripture to dig deeper than that; we are told to love. To meet others, especially others of faith, and simply like them, or to go through the motions as if we love them is far from where we should be spiritually. Liking is a superficial emotion, that can be based on nothing more than having similar interests, or enjoying the same things, but love comes from the heart, and soul. Love is of God, and is God.
“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,”
1 Peter 1:22 ESV
Near where I work is a Catholic College, and occasionally in the fall they sponsor a speaker’s series on various subjects ranging from religion, and history, to art. The first year I decided to attend one of these lectures I didn’t know what to expect. I was a Protestant man, and wondered if I would fit in, but with the Holy Spirit whispering in my ear I decided to go.
I left work that evening and arrived at the college in time to find the lecture room, and take a seat near the front where I could hear the speaker. People began to trickle in, then a long line of nuns in white habits arrived and sat directly behind me. They ranged in age from women in their seventies to some in their early twenties. I listened to them talk to one another, and can’t remember the conversations, but I do remember hearing the love in their voices, and thought to myself that they sounded just like the women in my own church. As I look back on that night I remember the love, and know that we are joined by our faith in God, and Jesus Christ; perhaps not by our liturgy, or some of the methods of worship, but by the love, goodness, and belief in Christ that I found we had in common. The most striking of these being love, and I immediately loved these sisters in Christ too.
“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”
Colossians 3:14-15 ESV
So although a smile, a handshake, and a happy pat on the back are nice, and loving others as God loves us is something that a few might think can be imitated, these things do not fulfill what we have been told to do. And, although some attempt to imitate love, it can easily be identified by those around us. We may not be able to define God’s love, but there is a saying that goes like this… “I’ll know it when I see it”, and those who are drawn to Jesus by watching us live our lives, will not only know it when they see it, but will be repulsed just as certainly if our love is not true, and from the heart. Scripture tells us specifically that from our heart flows life.
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Proverbs 4:23 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for giving us the love we show one another, and for making your presence in it so obvious. Help us Lord to love each other from within our hearts, just as we are meant to love you with all our hearts, minds, and souls. Open the eyes of unbelievers to your love as it glows through us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who is love, and who shares yourself so unselfishly with us. Praised be your name for every soul that is drawn to you by the love of Jesus, and the evidence of that love they see in our everyday lives. Merciful are you who so loved the world, that you sent your son to live, suffer, die, and be resurrected, to redeem us of our sins. Your grace flows through Jesus, and your love abides in Him, and He in us. Open our hearts Father, to our brothers and sisters in faith, but also to everyone we come into contact with. Use our love for them to deliver the gospel of Jesus through us, and to lead them to you. On all of this let the glory be yours… now, and forevermore.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.”
1 John 3:16-20 ESV
Rich Forbes