NO GREATER LOVE
Do We Really Love One Another?
Joh 13:35 This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples--when they see the love you have for each other."
We all say we love God, we love to worship Him, and read His word, and come to church, but the question is do we love each other? Words are true when they are backed up with action. Anyone who has ever struggled in their marriage know that just saying I love you, doesn't mean nothing unless it is seen in what they do. Some of the people that seem to love God the most well at least in outer display, can at times seem very judgmental, critical, and unloving. Those who truly have an intimate relationship with God will be known by the way they treat others. God is love and those that are truly His will be known by the love they give to others.
1Jo 3:10-11 Here's how you tell the difference between God's children and the Devil's children: The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test. For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
1Jo 3:14-24 The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don't go together. This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
If the enemy can turn us against each other before we even go into battle then he believes he has won. The bible declares that death and life is in the power of the tongue, if we are murdering off each other with our words then how we can say we love God. We blame the enemy for church splits, and for members leaving the church, and for all the chaos that can sometimes be taking place in church world, but we don't understand that sometimes we are the enemy, meaning we are being influenced by him to destroy the work of God. Christ sacrificed His life for us, if we have really taken this to heart, then how can we get caught up in all these church games (gossip, power struggles, jealousies, and the like). Christ is patient with us can't we be patient with each other and instead of being used against each other be used for each other, for we are all part of the same body, and what we do against another we do against ourselves. We can only live and be part of Him who is the head of the church as we are connected to each other.
Are We Laying Down Our Life For Each Other?
Joh 15:9-17 "I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done--kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love. "I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father. "You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. "But remember the root command: Love one another.
A good general will not send his soldiers into battle if they are not willing to die for each other, for they will be out for themselves and not operating as a unit. Maybe we are not hearing any marching orders, instructions on tearing down strongholds and establishing the kingdom of God in our territories because we are not ready for battle. We have too many casualties from within our own walls. It can be very fearful to go into battle without proper support, and those who try to go out alone, don't go far. It is time that we lay down our own selfish agendas, and love each other, and prove to the world we are really His, for no greater love is this than to lay down our life for each other.
Eph 4:1-2 In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk--better yet, run!--on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline--not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love,
What Does Real Love Look Like?
In all appearances it may seem as if we are God - fearing people. We seem to be doing all that a Christian ought to. We say we love God and we try to love each other. We maybe even quite busy doing the so-called right things. But if we really checked ourselves there seems to be something missing.
Isa 58:2-11 They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people-- law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' and love having me on their side. But they also complain, 'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' "Well, here's why: "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, GOD, would like? "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The GOD of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, GOD will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.' "If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places-- firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
Again, true love is not just seen in our words , or our personal devotions, but is seen in how we treat each other, and how we respond to a lost and dying world, which is what fulfills all righteousness. Many in the world reject Christ because they can't understand this, they call us hypocrites, and how can we do so many church activities but yet do so little acts of compassion. The Christ of the bible was moved by compassion when it comes to the needs of those around Him and He always responded. Are we really living our lives unto God, is He guiding us through our days, if so, then why is the world around us the way it is, why are here so many hurting people ignored and neglected? Do we really care? Is God in our life just for ourselves or is He in our life so He can use us to reach others.
1Pe 4:7-11 Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless--cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything--encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!
It is time to surrender, to be a living sacrifices, for it is our reasonable service considering that Christ layed down His life for us (Ro. 12:1). Then our eyes will be opened to what God is doing and are ears will hear what God is saying, what was missing in our life will now be complete. For God created us for the purpose of ruling and reigning with Him over the earth, but first we must lay down our life, as will be seen by the love we have for one another.