Learning what love is...
I'm sick of watching the people around me love themselves and ignore others. With their thoughts, their words and their deeds they not only love themselves first and only, they do it with either a casual nonchalance, or an arrogant bravado that repeats the pure, idiotic lie..."it doesn't matter. I don't care."
In Mark chapter 12 Jesus talks about the two most important commandments...
"30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
A common lie that I've seen people tell is that they are Christians, that they love God, but in their life I see no love for others, no love for their brothers and sisters in Christ.
They are LYING!!!
For it is written in 1 John 4:20-21...
"20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."
And it's not enough to say, "I do not hate my brother. When have I ever said anything wrong to him, or done something wrong to him?"
Love is not about not doing unloving things. It is about choosing to do loving things. Think about James 4:17 when it says...
"17Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."
If you are who you say you are, then you know the good you ought to do. And you are not doing it. You are living in sin, and you are strangling yourself, spiritually. Be careful, unless you have no fear of Matthew 7:21 when it says...
"21Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
It is not enough to merely treat as you must, treat them as you desire to treat them. If you have no desire to love others than do not lie to yourself, simply admit your true feelings and go your own way. But if you desire for others to be encouraged, to be comforted, to be inspired, to be happy...then speak and do in their lives in a way that shows them the love of God that lives within you by the merciful sacrifice of Jesus.
There is no depth in a life lived for yourself. You will not know what love even looks like, much less how to do it. You will wallow in your own emptiness, taking your stubborn selfishness out on everyone else around you, even yourself. Only by the grace of God can any of us live differently. But we are free in Christ Jesus! Free from sin! Free from our bondage in sin, as it says in Galatians 5:1...
"1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
And what is that slavery? It is a slavery to sin.
So embrace the encouragement we recieve in Hebrews 10:24 (look it up, and then do it), and do not let your words and deeds be selfishly careless and unconcerned with our brothers and sisters around us...
Encourage one another towards love and good deeds...
We have it in each of us, by the grace of God, to lift up, to encourage, to compliment, to apologize, to be like our savior in every way that we can...
So stop saying you don't care about others. Stop judging them. And start loving them.
Grow up. This is bigger than you.
In Mark chapter 12 Jesus talks about the two most important commandments...
"30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
A common lie that I've seen people tell is that they are Christians, that they love God, but in their life I see no love for others, no love for their brothers and sisters in Christ.
They are LYING!!!
For it is written in 1 John 4:20-21...
"20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."
And it's not enough to say, "I do not hate my brother. When have I ever said anything wrong to him, or done something wrong to him?"
Love is not about not doing unloving things. It is about choosing to do loving things. Think about James 4:17 when it says...
"17Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."
If you are who you say you are, then you know the good you ought to do. And you are not doing it. You are living in sin, and you are strangling yourself, spiritually. Be careful, unless you have no fear of Matthew 7:21 when it says...
"21Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
It is not enough to merely treat as you must, treat them as you desire to treat them. If you have no desire to love others than do not lie to yourself, simply admit your true feelings and go your own way. But if you desire for others to be encouraged, to be comforted, to be inspired, to be happy...then speak and do in their lives in a way that shows them the love of God that lives within you by the merciful sacrifice of Jesus.
There is no depth in a life lived for yourself. You will not know what love even looks like, much less how to do it. You will wallow in your own emptiness, taking your stubborn selfishness out on everyone else around you, even yourself. Only by the grace of God can any of us live differently. But we are free in Christ Jesus! Free from sin! Free from our bondage in sin, as it says in Galatians 5:1...
"1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
And what is that slavery? It is a slavery to sin.
So embrace the encouragement we recieve in Hebrews 10:24 (look it up, and then do it), and do not let your words and deeds be selfishly careless and unconcerned with our brothers and sisters around us...
Encourage one another towards love and good deeds...
We have it in each of us, by the grace of God, to lift up, to encourage, to compliment, to apologize, to be like our savior in every way that we can...
So stop saying you don't care about others. Stop judging them. And start loving them.
Grow up. This is bigger than you.
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