What is true love? God answers this clearly in 1 John 4:19-21 and in many other places in the bible.
"If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother who he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother."
Loving God and others is not just a choice, it's a command. It's not always easy to do. Sometimes doubt creeps in. Sometimes someone hurts you, frustrates you, or disappoints you. For someone like me, who is super sensitive, feeling unloved can happen quite often. Knowing though that God commands me to love Him and others, no matter what, is definitely something I cannot ignore, no matter how real my feelings or emotions are to me. It's not an easy task walking the Christian walk because doing so means dying to your old self and going against everything which your flesh WANTS to do.
IF you are discontent with someone today, I encourage you to resolve it. Humble yourself because your hate towards them is not invisible to God above, who knows all, sees all, and is ALL. Again, this is no easy task sometimes because it means YOU must humble yourself. The Lord hates the proud...
"All of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." 1 Peter 5:5
Soli Deo Gloria
beautiful, kristin. thanks for sharing. the Lord is kind.
ReplyDeletealso in that same chapter, around vs 9 or so:
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
true love is sacrifice and humility, Christ as the perfect example (as you said!).