Monday, May 22, 2006

Command

Love one another. God’s people should love one another. John the Apostle repeats over and over, love one another. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” 1 John 4: 7. “ Dear friends since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4: 11. “ God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4: 16. “We love because he first loved us. If 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. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” 1 John 4: 19-21.
The Apostle Peter instructs the Church to love one another. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Peter 1: 22. Finally, all of you live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers. 1 Peter 3: 8. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4: 8.
Where do I begin in quoting the Apostle Paul writing about the Church loving one another? He wrote so much on the subject. Read chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians. Paul writes in Philippians to “make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love in spirit and purpose. Philippians 2:2”.
Our Sovereign Lord Jesus commanded us directly to love one another. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13: 34. Let me draw your attention to a couple of words, command and must.
For a command to believers that is so repeated and stressed in scripture why are we doing such a poor job? We treat church quarrels as a natural occurrence. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. James 4: 1-2. In the meantime many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being wounded. They leave our churches never to return. Do we care about the damage we have done? Do we regret the pain the wounds we have caused? Do we really take our Lord’s command seriously? Love one another. Be last of all. Be servant of all. Sit in the last chair.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

People do forget this commandment all the time. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is very powerful. One thing we have to have in place before we can love our neighbor. We first have to love ourselves. If we don't love ourselves there's no way that we will beable to love our neighbor.

jel said...

very cool post

thanks

have a great day!

Karuna said...

Yeah, we've so quickly forgotten what we once sang "And they'll know we are christians by our Love" No wonder people don't see the difference between a christian and someone else. Good post brother. Keep on.

David Meigs said...

Not only should we love one another because we were commanded to.

We should do it because it is the only path of freedom and joy.

Laymond said...

I enjoyed reading your blog, I have only read command and Shepherd But i intend to linl your blog and read the rest, God Bless you

Bonnie S. Calhoun said...

Great post! That should be the insert in every church bulletin for the next year!

If we could only learn!

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