I'm very much a lover. Sometimes it doesn't feel like I can give out enough love. Like I'll get tired or testy with someone and often God stops me and goes "Yo, um, why aren't you showing love?" Like "Who do you think you are choosing who to love and when?"
Why are we not ALL showing EXTREME love to one another (and in that, everyone)? Why are we not known for our passionate love? What's been warped to make that feel "acceptable" to harbor hatred and resentment?
Not God's word. If we look there, we see that is dead wrong:
1 Peter 3:8 (ESV if yo wonderin')
"Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind."
Psalms 133:1
"How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity."
2 Corinthians 13:11
[ Final Greetings ]
Finally, brothers, goodbye. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
This is a big one, but seriously, read it.
2 Corinthians 5:11-21
11Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
13For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that For the love of Christ one has died for all, therefore all have died;
15and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In view of all that, in view of the love of Christ, where the heck do we think we have the right to hold "hatred" in our hearts? We daily, to loosely quote "Remember the Titans" :
(Coach quoting the voices of the soldiers at Gettysburg:)"I killed my brother with malice in my hearts. Hatred destroyes my family." We should listen, and take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other or not, but you will respect each other. And maybe... I don't know, just maybe we'll learn to play this game like men."
This goes deeper than mere respect. One of the best speakers I've heard, Josh McDowell, said "The best definition of love I have found is this: "To provide and protect"
We need to be providing for and protecting each other. NOT loving only when you are around them and then tearing them dowm when you aren't with them. I'm so guilty of that. I show love, but in my heart, I'm bitter and resentful or just plain feel as though I am above the person. Wow, and I claim to be an "ambassador of Christ" to the world. How screwed up. Christ showed love. He poured love. He spoke harshly to the religious leaders of the day, cause they were misleading his people. They weren't acting out of love. And that's exactly how it should be. God calling people out of love for a lack of love.
Here's what 1 Corinthians 13 says:
The Way of Love
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.LOVE is patient and kind.
(love doesn't just bear with someone or tolerate them. in patience, it is kind as well. it is loving.)
LOVE does not envy and does not boast.
(love doesn't envy what others have and it doesn't look to make others act out of a lack of love by causing them feel the need to envy it. or make them feel lower. [sidenote: if you envy, you are not rejoicing in their good fortune but resenting not receiving it yourself. and thus telling God he was wrong. its not against a person, but God.])
LOVE is not arrogant or rude.
(do I really need to expound on that?)
[hardest one for me... irritableness...]
LOVE is not irritable or resentful (also read "keeps no record of wrongs").
(love doesn't use tiredness as an excuse to not put others first. it doesn't allow another to make them upset. only righteous anger given by God is true. love doesn't hold back love for any reason to do with a grudge. {grudge keeping is a bitterness that wears the heart down. let it go. its not worth the price of the bricks to build that wall. freedom is so much sweeter to the soul.}
LOVE doesn't rejoice at wrongdoing BUT rejoices in TRUTH.
(love doesn't cheer on the friend for doing what they both know is wrong. but love does encourage the one who does right as often as possible.)
believes all things.
hopes all things.
endures all things.
So that's my deal right now.
Stop being childish, stop feeling wronged, stop thinking we are above Christ and deserve to hate. STOP.
Love.
And he said to him,
"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
9: Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness."
1 John 2:3-6;9
