"But I say to you,
love your enemies, bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you
and persecute you,
that you may be sons of your
Father in heaven;
for He makes
His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
Matt. 5: 44-45
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Happy Monday! Let's seek the Lord together....
"Holy Father above...I come before You this day to give You all glory and praise. Thank You for reminding us with Your words that we are to love our enemies even though they swear against us and hate us as they hated You. I pray that You will give me a heart like Yours so that I can love my enemies as You do. Thank You that You provide the sun and rain for us even though we do not deserve it.
I seek forgiveness of my sins because I know that when I sin, I am an enemy of God. I do not want to be an enemy of Yours any longer, Lord. I pray that You will cleanse me, renew in me a clean pure heart like Yours. Help me to practice righteousness as You are righteous.
I life up to you each lady reading this study today. I pray that she will stay in Your word daily. I pray that You will go to her where she is and encourage her spiritually that anything she is dealing with today she will feel Your presence with her. I pray that she will glorify You today with her actions and her words.
In Jesus' name...amen."
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As Christians, we are commanded to love one another by none other than God Himself. He willingly gave us the prime example of how to love those around us when He walked this earth for 33 years. There is no greater example for Christians to follow than Christ's.
Commanded to Love
Why do you think it is that Jesus actually had to command people to love one another? Yes, it is because we wouldn't do it otherwise!
1 John 3:14-15
"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
The example of love Jesus gave us is in not only His words, but His deeds.
Please read:
John 4:34-38
Matt 9:35-38
Jesus not only healed people, but He had great compassion for them as He saw them. He, and He alone, could have judged them harshly for their sins....He could have judged all inhabitants of the world for ruining His creation with sin. But here we read that He was "moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd". How much love is there for us to live by??
But instead of feeling love, the Christian feels hatred. Why? Sin remains.
We learned from the last lesson what hatred looks like and what it does: it kills. Cain murdered his brother because he had no love for him. As Christians, we are not to immulate Cain, but Jesus instead. That is what John is telling his readers: Study how Christ loved, abide in that love, and love the brethren.
He tells us throughout this book that we can know we are Christians by our obedience to God's commands and our love for the brethren.
"..no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
One thing we know from studying John's first letter is that he is not one to mince words. He comes straight to the point more often than not! Here he is being as blunt as ever: no murderer as eternal life abiding in him. So, we know that murderer begins with hatred in the heart...
Matt 5:21-22
Gal 5:19-21
That is why God has to command us to love, because it is not in our nature to love one another. How sad is that? It is only the Holy Spirit that can change our hearts and make us love one another.
Eph 2:1-5
Non-believers can know we are Christians by our love for the brethren and for them. We are partakers of life now...not death....so others around us should be able to see that life in us, that LOVE for one another should be made manifest so it can give hope to the hopeless.
We know what love is by the example that Christ gave us: He laid down His life for us. He gave up His throne to walk among the people as a lowly servant. He walked away from Paradise to suffer a horrible gruesome death of shame on the cross.
1 John 4:10-11
Luke 23:34
Eph 5:25
We are to love the way Christ loved: wholeheartedly and without holding back. This we cannot do if we do not have Christ abiding in us.
It is not enough just to believe...
James 2:19
But we are to have love like Christ did too. Then, and only then, can we do the works of the Lord.
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Life Application
In our opening verses we read how we are to love those who hate us, as Christ did, because the Lord God has grace upon even His enemies in that the sun shines on them and the rain falls on their land too.
Who are we to deny anyone love when God Himself does not? We can learn alot about the grace of God. It says so much about who He is. And if we say we love Him, and carry hatred around in our hearts....that makes us liars.
Ps 84:11-12
Zech 12:10
Luke 2:40
John 1:17
Rom 5:17
2 Cor 8:9
2 Cor 12:9
Eph 2:8
Heb 12:28
James 4:6
2 Pet 3:18
We read in God's word that Jesus is the Grace that God gives to all of us, that if we have been given that grace, then we should bestow grace on others. Who are we to withhold it?
Take time today to really study what love is....Love for your children, husband, family, friends, and fellow believers. You will see the many different kinds of love there are. Then, dwell on the love you have for Jesus and how it transcends all other loves. Meditate on His love for you today. Take it with you where ever you go today. That way others will see that you have been with Jesus....and He will be glorified.
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Until next time....
"He never in any act gave so great a manifestation of love to God, and yet never so manifested His love to those who were enemies to God, as in that act. Christ never did anything whereby His love to the Father was so eminently manifested in His laying down His life under such inexpressible sufferings in obedience to God's command, and for the vindication of the honor of His authority and majesty; nor did ever any mere creature give such a testimony of love to God as that was...the greatness of Christ's love to such appears in nothing so much as in its being dying love. That blood of Christ which fell in great drops to the ground in His agony was shed from love to God's enemies and His own."
-Jonathan Edwards (1703- 1758) (Altogether Lovely, 1997, pp 35-36)
Blessings,
Ruth
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