What’s Love Got To Do With It? (Part 4)
What’s Love Got To Do With It? (Part 4)
“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
I John 4:20-21
Loving God, loving our brothers and sisters in Christ and loving others. That’s it. That is who we are to selflessly love, without question, without conditions and without letting ourselves get in the way of it.
As Christian’s, we profess to love God. We worship God. We sing songs to God, read His word, meet with others like us and talk about Him. Go to church and small groups. But when it comes to other people we fall extremely short. Especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We are told by Jesus, and John even writes in this chapter - if we love God, who we have never seen, how can we not love our brothers and sisters, who are right in front of us.
I struggle in this area.
Sure, I see others who are better at this, more than I am. Namely my wife. She is an easy-forgiver of wrong doings. Not just in our marriage either. Ours was no easy struggle. None in the least. But I watch as she looks for the good in people. Whereas for me, that never came easy. I’ve always felt like people will take advantage of you. That they are always looking for the easy way or a pay day. She has a way of seeing things in people that makes me love her much much more. It’s a quality I know she has, that has come from her faith in God and her growth with Him. Something she also struggled with at one time in her life.
Your relationship with God will grow you as a Christian. Your lack of a relationship with God, will not. Going to church does not make you a Christian, no more than driving a car makes you a car. If you simply do something for some added benefit that you’re not receiving from it - stop doing it.
You must grow your relationship with God through prayer and Bible reading. There is no other way. Yes, there are ways to add to it, to do things in addition to it, but those are the basics. Nothing else is fundamentally necessary in your relationship with God.
Not doing anything at all, not seeking the knowledge, wisdom and understanding - will only delay the process and will more than likely, stunt your growth. You know, that process is sanctification, that is your growth that separates you from the world. Your relationship with God will help you grow closer to Him, learn what His love is and teach you how to love as He loves.
We must love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are commanded to. We are to love them selflessly and without conditions.
But how do you know who they are?
This is tough to answer. Christian’s are hard to spot nowadays. They aren’t just church goers. And just because a person is in church doesn’t make them a Christian. It just means they go to church. And just because they carry a Bible and go to church doesn’t make them a Christian, it just means they carry a Bible into church.
There are many in churches that find things to do that they believe grows them closer to God - things like moving chairs, mowing the grass, painting the church - this grows them no closer to God. Your personal relationship to God is based on submission and obedience. If you are not submitting yourself to God and obeying Him - you are not growing closer to Him.
You cannot learn, understand and grow close to God if you are not willing to invest the time into it. Ministries are important. Service is important. But your dedicated time with God should exceed anything else you do. Period.
I did this for a long time, went to church and carried a Bible thinking I looked like a Christian, people would believe I was one. I was not. And there are so many others. People that just don’t understand what it means to be a Christian’s. What the focus should be. I had become an expert on deceptive behavior. Satan will place wicked people in our churches, just as he will in any other place in the world. There are no areas that are off limits for him. Churches, families, businesses - Satan is everywhere.
Our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus for their lives. They don’t have to be theologians or Bible scholars. They don’t have to be preachers or deacons. They don’t have to tithe the most. And they don’t have to attend every service. But they must be showing fruits of the Holy Spirit. These fruits exists because their faith is dedicated to their relationship with God. They fear God and they are humbled at the cross where Jesus died for them.
I have watched as many people who have professed to be Christians have behaved badly, gossiped, lied, cheated and live immorally. If truly the Spirit of God is in someone they will bear the fruit. Their lives will be different because they are a new creature in Christ. Their lives will be different because God is in front of everything they do. Not just temporarily or some times.
You will never truly love other Christians, your brothers and sisters, if you live a watered-down, diluted and polluted, Christian life. And if you can’t love other Christians, you won’t be able to love the lost. And if you’re not capable of loving the lost - there is probably a lot going on in your life.
As we pursue God in prayer and Bible reading, we learn about Him, from Him. The Holy Spirit will begin to teach us and convict us, and our discernment will sharpen. When we grow closer to God and learn the power of the Holy Spirit - we will love like God intended for us to love.
This is how we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. True Christians don’t shun or shut out each other. They don’t gossip about each other behind their backs. They don’t find more comfort in the world than with other believers and they don’t let their brothers and sisters fall away. They look to save the lost and they do everything in their power to keep the saved pursuing God. You will see their faith grow. You will see the love of God in them. Prayers are answered and blessings will be given.
Jesus Christ discipled people that were family to Him. He taught them, prayed with them, ate with them, washed their feet and He loved them. This family was a family of believers. They would, and most did, die for their faith in Him. Their conviction, standing and value for their faith was beyond reproach. You couldn’t tell them that Jesus wasn’t real. Or that God didn’t exist. You couldn’t pry them from their heavenly brothers and sisters. So why is it so easy to walk away from our heavenly brothers and sisters now?
We’ve made excuses. We’ve folded and bended. Our faith isn’t as strong as we’d like to profess. It’s easy to say what you’d do, much harder to prove it. I’ve watched many Christians in the last three years make me believe how strong their faith was - not by showing me - but by telling me, only to disappoint me.
My grandmother had a cool saying - “put your money where your mouth is. I never understand what that meant. It was actually weird at the time, because penny’s tasted horrible. I came to learn what the saying meant. That we are to back up what we say as if it cost us everything.
Well, it cost Jesus everything to tell people that the way to eternal salvation was through Him. Maybe we should start to live like it means that to us as well.
“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.”
Ephesians 5:1-7
“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”
I John 5:18-20
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
Ephesians 5:8-11