West Michigan sure has a lot of churches. You can almost find one on every street corner. Does that mean that nearly every person you run into is saved?
In the U.S., isn’t it true that nearly 90% believe there is a God and just a hair less claim an affiliation with a Christian faith? Therefore, shouldn’t nearly 9 out of 10 people you run into be saved?
When did being a Christian become popular, trendy?
The Apostle John was known for being Jesus’ beloved disciple. He understood Christ’s love and what it meant to live His love in this life. But is love really that much more important over following God’s precepts? Remember when one of the experts of the Jewish law, a Pharisee, tested Jesus by asking, “What is the greatest commandment in the Law?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:36-40).
Everything else taught in the Bible hangs, suspends, from loving God and loving others. Think of it this way: Everything falls to its death when loving God and loving others is stripped away.
I know in my being that many don’t even understand what real love is, the only love, the Love that comes from God. Furthermore, those that claim to know God (80-90%), many of them don’t either. 1 John 3:14 is profound: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” Wow. So everything else we try to pursue in the faith, it dies when Godly love is nowhere to be found.
If we are to love others, though, we cannot do it on our own. It comes through His cleansing and His power, lest we could become righteous on our own. Here are Dad’s thoughts: “I noticed something interesting. Verse 3; ‘Everyone who has hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure’ (NKJV). The word that John used for ‘purifies’ is the word that usually is translated ‘sanctify’. It is the word ‘hagnidzo’. This word is from the root ‘hagios’, which is always translated ‘holy’ or saint. This verb form ‘hagnidzo’ is usually used in reference to a ceremonial cleansing symbolizing the work God is (hopefully) doing in our lives, depicting the moral change that has occurred. Here the Apostle John has, under the inspiration of the ‘Holy’ Spirit, showed us how just hoping in the future that God has for us has an eternal changing impact to our spirits in preparation for the eternity, which God has for each of us! See Proverbs 13:12.”
Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”
I must remember that loving God and loving others is, in fact, loving God. He loves me so much that he gave up everything for me. He separated himself for me. How much more should I separate myself for others, loving them as Christ loved me, all the while longing for the bridegroom in preparation for an eternity to come?
11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 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. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
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. 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? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
1 John 3:11-24
14 days!
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