What might living out our Christian faith look like? Christians are to be known for their love. Christ showed us this love in His life and death. However, following in His footsteps is not always as easy as you might think. Love sounds simple enough until you see how the Bible defines love.
It describes love in 1 Cor. 13:4-8. It says that love is not self-seeking and it does not keep a record of wrongs. This raises the bar from love just being an emotion to having love be a standard of how we act and think. If we truly love, we can no longer bring up past sins of our spouse or friends to help us win an argument. If we truly love, we will not look to our own self interest, but to the interests of others - which could mean that we give up what we want for them. 1 Corinthians helps us to start to understand what love truly is. However, this verse only opens the door of our understanding of love, for we know that God is love.
We think of love as something we have for family and friends, but this is only the beginning of love. God calls us to love our enemy and He showed us the love we should have for the least of these in this world. He wants us to love the poor people, drunks, and prostitutes of this world. Yet we often look in different directions than Jesus would. We condemn the drunks and prostitutes. We tell the poor that it was bad luck or that they should do more and work harder. We often do this without knowing their situations or helping them as God would want us to. Does the Bible say to judge the poor or to help the poor? Are we loving as God would have us love? Let's struggle to put into practice a Godly love that goes beyond our first impressions of love and transforms our lives.
Love involves sacrifice and being selfless, which goes against our natural tendency. Our culture feeds our natural tendency and is always telling us that everything is about us. We tend to live this way, but God (the Bible) may call us to give things up and to focus on Him and others. We may not want to give up things we think matter, but God has put His Spirit in us to guide us in His ways. Let's think about what God would want us to do and listen to His Spirit in us. This will help us to love in a Godly way and push us to grow in love.
True love is harder than we often think it is. Love may require us to give of ourselves, our time, our energy, our money, our encouragements, etc. Let's strive toward love and not just wait for it to come to us. Let us be known for our love and love as God would have us love. How can you love more like Christ?
Pastor,
Marshall Ollie
http://www.vitapastor.com/contact-us.html
It describes love in 1 Cor. 13:4-8. It says that love is not self-seeking and it does not keep a record of wrongs. This raises the bar from love just being an emotion to having love be a standard of how we act and think. If we truly love, we can no longer bring up past sins of our spouse or friends to help us win an argument. If we truly love, we will not look to our own self interest, but to the interests of others - which could mean that we give up what we want for them. 1 Corinthians helps us to start to understand what love truly is. However, this verse only opens the door of our understanding of love, for we know that God is love.
We think of love as something we have for family and friends, but this is only the beginning of love. God calls us to love our enemy and He showed us the love we should have for the least of these in this world. He wants us to love the poor people, drunks, and prostitutes of this world. Yet we often look in different directions than Jesus would. We condemn the drunks and prostitutes. We tell the poor that it was bad luck or that they should do more and work harder. We often do this without knowing their situations or helping them as God would want us to. Does the Bible say to judge the poor or to help the poor? Are we loving as God would have us love? Let's struggle to put into practice a Godly love that goes beyond our first impressions of love and transforms our lives.
Love involves sacrifice and being selfless, which goes against our natural tendency. Our culture feeds our natural tendency and is always telling us that everything is about us. We tend to live this way, but God (the Bible) may call us to give things up and to focus on Him and others. We may not want to give up things we think matter, but God has put His Spirit in us to guide us in His ways. Let's think about what God would want us to do and listen to His Spirit in us. This will help us to love in a Godly way and push us to grow in love.
True love is harder than we often think it is. Love may require us to give of ourselves, our time, our energy, our money, our encouragements, etc. Let's strive toward love and not just wait for it to come to us. Let us be known for our love and love as God would have us love. How can you love more like Christ?
Pastor,
Marshall Ollie
http://www.vitapastor.com/contact-us.html
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