In a previous blog, I talked about what it means to be saved, and what happens when we truly repent (we become new creatures). Today, the Lord has laid it on my heart to talk about love and forgiveness. When it comes to loving others, and forgiving others, talk is cheap. We can say that we are loving, that we love God and others, and then we may go around slandering people, gossiping about them, and secretly wishing them revenge and ill will if they have wronged us in some way. If we look at the following verses, John emphasizes the core meaning of love:
1Jn 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
1Jn 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
1Jn 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
1Jn 3:12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
1Jn 3:13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
1Jn 3:15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
1Jn 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
1Jn 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
1Jn 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. NIV
It is crucial that we get this, because this is what distinguishes us from the world. All the good works in the world will not make us any different than any unbeliever. This is what Jesus said:
Joh 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Joh 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." NIV
Maybe we are on the outs with someone, or things aren’t going well in a relationship we are in. Our hearts have turned cold towards someone because they have repeatedly hurt us or wronged us. When it comes to loving others, regardless of what they’ve done, or failed to do, we have to raise the bar. We have to be and act, or react, noticeably different than our flesh is telling us. This is what will make all the difference. This is what Jesus has told us to do in John 13:34.
For many years, I had been reading the Bible. Somewhere along the line, I started to think that I was superior to others, since I had so much knowledge of the Bible (or so I mistakenly thought). I would sometimes use the Bible as a weapon in my defense of my beliefs, not realizing how much damage I was doing to the person I was contending with. Rather than change the person’s mind, all it did was stir up strife, and create a harboring of bad feelings. I didn’t realize how prideful I was being until one day the Lord would no longer reveal His Word to me in the same way as He had always done before. Pride is so subtle. It is self wanting the glory and the attention that rightfully belongs to God. Rather than care more about how much knowledge I had that I could share, I needed to care more for the person I was sharing it with. This is how God reached me in the first place! He showed me that He cared more about me than He did about all the wrong I had done against Him.
It has been a long and slow process for me to learn about love, and to learn God’s perfect ways, but He is so patient, He never gives up on me. Recently, I learned a valuable lesson about loving your brother or sister (both saved and unsaved). I was responding to a blog and talking about how we more deeply experience God’s love and grace when we also have a knowledge and revelation of our own sin. In other words, we appreciate God’s love that much more when we realize we could never deserve such love. After I wrote it, if my intentions were to try and have people see things my way, the Lord quickly changed my agenda. Rather than a feeling of “listen, and pay attention to what I have to say because you need to hear it,” I instead felt a great deal of pity, sorrow and a burden for readers on that blog. I started to pray for them, and then I started to feel undone (convicted). I realized God had given me knowledge of Him, and allowed me to experience His love AS A GIFT from Him, and that when I shared this, it also had to be given AS A GIFT to others (and received as if it was from Him). I am just His agent.
God’s love to us is an incredible gift that nothing and no one can compare to. It is not just some touchy-feely emotional thing that we feel and then act on. It is a tangible, life-giving gift to be given ESPECIALLY when it is least deserved. Perhaps today we need to take a good, long and hard look at ourselves. Have we cheapened God’s love, and just give a little here and a little there when it suits us, or are we going the extra several miles to deliver His love with a heart filled with humility, gratefulness and joy? He hasn’t asked us to love; He has commanded it in John 13:34. Here’s what happens when we obey this command:
1Jn 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. NIV
Can you imagine? God chooses to dwell in us and He loves others through us. We don’t have to wait to love that way either. Today we have a choice. If we have something against someone else, the first thing we need to do is repent of it, and then we need to make things right with that person. It might mean a simple confession and “I’m sorry,” or it might mean a small gift or something more. If we feel that someone has done something against us, we still need to forgive them because we can harbor anger and bitterness in our hearts until we do. Until it is cleared up and we do the right thing, God’s love cannot live in us because it goes against His very character and His Word. It is us who must obey Him and do what He’s asked us to do.
Are we struggling with sickness today? Then there’s another promise about forgiveness found here:
Jas 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. NIV
Rather than slander, gossip, attack, and be angry towards others, let’s do the right thing today and lighten our own load, and someone else’s. We might even put a great big smile on their face.
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