Today I wanted to look at a very important aspect of Christian Life. Love. Our context scripture is 2 part. The Bible uses "charity” as love.
1st John 4:16 "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
1st Corinthians 13: 4-7 "(4)Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, (5)doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; (6)rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; (7)beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
GOD IS LOVE, and God loves us. Throughout the bible we get reminded of this. It is a concept we really need to grasp hold of. Too often I myself will lose/forget this very critical part in my walk with God. Often I find myself wondering, how would God allow something to happen? Forgetting things happen from our own actions or actions of others, and the devil is real..
Love is an action not a feeling. Notice love is more of an action and a choice. Not feelings or emotions. We can choose whether or not we want to love someone or not. It is not forced on us. Think about 1st Corinthians 13:4-7. Those require a certain action and discipline on our part to obtain.
Check out these verses.
Matthew 5:43-44 (43) Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. (44) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: But love covereth all sins.
To truly love requires an action on our part. Easy to say we love those close to us but love our enemies? That is a tough pill to swallow. Maybe you have heard the phrase, hate the sin, not the sinner. Though that is not a verse in the Bible, the Bible will back the statement, for we are to hate sin/evil. Sin is an action or could be a thing, not a person. We are to never hate people, but their actions, yeah sure, but we do have to remember that we are all sinners.
There is a ton more that can be said on this subject. I would like to hear from you. What are your thoughts? Are there areas in our life that we can improve on when it comes to loving others? Do we allow hate to be a part of our daily living?
COMMENTS
[ posted by Evelyn, 09/04/2022 11:35 AM ]
So why can we NOT hate our enemies?? Our enemies try to destroy us by their actions. I don't think praying for our enemies does us a world of good. Do they even deserve our prayers? So is it a sin if we hate(a powerful word)our enemies? After all, we're not perfect.
[ posted by Mike, 09/05/2022 10:50 AM ]
Matthew 5:44 very clearly says to love, bless and do good to our enemies. Ephesians 4:32 "and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
If we have hate in our hearts, will will not be able to forgive those who have done wrong to us.
Matthew 6:14
"For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:"
Matthew 6:15
"but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
We need to pay very close attention to Matthew 6:15.
[ posted by Mike, 09/05/2022 11:47 AM ]
God is LOVE. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Even those who Hate God, he still sacrificed His Son for them. HE still gave, and is a blessing to them.
[ posted by Priscilla, 09/06/2022 07:53 AM ]
Forgiving (with love) does not mean that what happened to us by someone else is OK or that we continue to allow abuse of this kind to continue. We simply refuse to allow ourselves to become consumed by how others have treated us. We love because God loves, and our goal is to become "little" Christs to others in this world. To love someone (quoting Bishop Robert Barron) is to 'Will their ultimate good' and what can be better than God himself? So we pray that our enemies have a sincere conversion of heart and turn to God. We may never know here on earth, how loving another person will affect their life or human history, and so we do it anyways.
[ posted by wendi, 09/07/2022 11:23 AM ]
All you can do is to pray that your enemies will change their ways. I dont think you need to pray all the time for them. Just maybe that one time after they do you wrong. It is not good to hold grudges if someone does you wrong. Say a prayer and move on and make sure they are not a part of your life anymore. You are to love everyone. I don't think that God intended it to be you going up to them and saying it. I think it means more of "Don't be ugly to them and don't be evil back to them" That saying of 2 wrongs don't make a right. It is difficult to not hold a little resentment towards someone. I am even guilty of that and try to do my best. I just prefer not to have them in my life and problem is solved.
[ posted by Cindy, 09/08/2022 03:58 PM ]
Wow, does this one hit home... Just had my supposed "best friend and neighbor" throw accusations against me of things I did not say, and then refused to answer my calls or open the door to talk to me. And is now trying to turn my neighbors against us with her bad
talk about me. After calming myself down, I responded to her message and accusations and broke each one down describing the conversation and my response and asked how she could even come up with what she said and told her she knows she is wrong.... I was heartbroken she would do this to me and just couldn't understand... But you know what, I have just prayed for her. She's wrong, and she knows it. And God knows I didnt say those things.
That's where I get my peace and forgiveness for her.