For many days now we have been studying together in the book of First John where John the apostle has shown us how much God loves us and desires to have fellowship with us. God has proven His love toward us by sending His Son Jesus to die for our sins which kept us separated from Him. God loves us even when it seems that we are in an unlovable state, and now John challenges us to consider God's love an example for us to follow toward others. John writes in First John chapter four and verse eleven:
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
More than likely if you have been following our study together, you noticed once again John's use of the word “Beloved”. As a tender father in the faith, John exhorts us to one of the greatest challenges that we face on Earth – loving others. Oh, yes, it's pretty easy to love people who love us, and most of the time we actually enjoy their presence. The exceptions we offer to ourselves come when others are unknown or even worse are “not as we are”. As long as people function generally according to our own standard of living, they tend to be lovable, but when they differ and sometimes greatly differ, therein lies the obstacles. Yet, John says, “we ought to love one another.”
Do we love others? Really? Do we seek their welfare more than our own? When there is an opportunity for another person to have the last piece of pie or go first in the line, do we let them or do we indulge ourselves? When another person gains advancement in a job position over us, are we excited for them or angry at our loss? When another person's team wins over our team, how do we react? Oh I'm sure there are a thousand questions that would measure the amount of love we have for others, but I encourage the readers to come up with those.
The main discussion for today is, are we obeying what John the apostle said we ought? Do we love others? If so, great, and if not, perhaps we should once again consider the love the Heavenly Father has toward us who indeed knows how imperfect we are.
Next time we will talk about how love is perfected within us, so read ahead and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
Look for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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