REVEALING GOD DEVOTIONAL - THE LOVE FOR OTHERS
Praise God for another day to be able to show some love. I am praying that you will continue to reflect on our entire discussion on love after today. I will be concluding our discussion on love today by talking about love for other people. The truth is that people can be the hardest thing to love sometimes because they have a mind of their own, but we must understand that loving people who are not lovable will require faith and patience until we are able to build our spiritual muscles to easily love them. This is necessary because loving people is the second most important commandment that God gave Christians. The scripture says, “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:39-40).
All of God’s commandments hang on the commandment of loving God first and loving others. That is why when you carefully look at the Ten Commandments, you will notice that the first five commandments deal with our relationship with God and parents, and the other five deal with our relationship with men. The fact is that if you love a person, you will not lie, steal, cheat, covet what belongs to them, or want to kill them. Therefore we see that love automatically fulfills all of God’s commandments. The scripture says, “For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:9-10).
Sometimes Christians can take the Word of God to the extreme and become judgmental, especially when a Christian makes a mistake of falling into sin. Instead of trying to help them, many Christians are quick to condemn and gossip about people’s mistakes — and that in itself is a sin.
Once we step out of love, even though we are backing our actions up with scriptures, it can lead to sin, which lets God take away His eyes of mercy from us. So when we too make a mistake, we are judged for it without mercy (James 2:13). Every one of God’s commandments must hang on the love commandment or tend towards love if it must end up right. The scripture says, “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned” (1 Timothy 1:5).
You must understand what hatred is about, to better understand what love is. To hate someone is not only when you harbor hatred in your heart, but is also any thought, word, or action, taken or not taken, that hurts or disregards others. So when you remain neutral towards someone’s needs, you are not walking in love. This was why the rich man in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus was found guilty and sent to hell (Luke 16). The scripture says, “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17).
If I ask, “How many Christians love God?” I am sure many Christians will say they do. That is good. But see what happened to me one day. I was really loving God, I knew I was because my thoughts were really overwhelmed by Him. But as I walked into church, I had a voice speak to me, “Also love others.” Our proof that we love God is that we also love others, because we cannot see God, but we can see people that are made in the image and likeness of God, whom God loves. If we then say we love God, we will love His creation that He loves. Because it is natural for people to show interest in what a person they love loves. The scripture says, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:20-21).
Jesus gave a parable about the judgment day and said that there were two sets of believers: those that loved God and those that didn’t. Those that loved God were the ones that were allowed into the kingdom of God, but those that didn’t love Him were eternally condemned. So the men were wondering when they saw God and didn’t love Him. Then Jesus said in the parable that those who cared for the sick, prison, hunger — or should I say generally, that anyone that loved others — were those that loved God, and those that didn’t were those that didn’t love Him. Therefore loving others is loving God (Matthew 25:31-45). The scripture says, “Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me” (Matthew 25:45).
As a Christian, loving is not something we just learn; it is something that is our nature, because if God is love (1 John 4:8), and we are truly born again, then we are born having a spiritual nature of love (2 Timothy 1:7). The truth is that once a Christian is not spiritually growing up, that nature of love cannot be truly manifested as it should. And in that way that Christian looks no different from an unbeliever.
Therefore we must understand that Christian maturity is not proved by the display of spiritual gifts or wisdom, but only by showing love to others. The only real proof that a person is born again is not by our confessions of love, but by our actions of love. And the proof that a person is walking with the devil and not God is that they are walking in hatred, because hatred is the nature of the devil. So it is an abnormality to find a Christian that should be walking in love walking in hatred. The scripture says, “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother” (1 John 3:10).
We must also understand that we can only truly exhibit the nature and power of God when we walk in love, because when we act in love, we engage and activate the life of God in us. But if we don’t walk in love, we introduce the workings of death — death to ourselves and death to others. That is why God hates hatred and in fact refers to anyone doing it as a murderer. So repent if you are harboring unforgiveness, because physical murder is killing someone, but spiritual murder is hatred. Hatred and strife are major blinding problems amongst believers today, which can keep them from entering into eternal life (1 John 2:11). The scripture says, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:14-15).
You must not expect a thank you from anyone you show love towards, and that is why you must understand that true love shows love without a reason, but the simple fact that it is a commandment from God and we geniunely care for others. In fact, the scripture says our love to others is a debt that we must repay (Romans 13:8), and you certainly don’t expect a thank you for paying your debt.
Moreover, you can never fall into error when you walk in love, because walking in love is walking with God. I know many people in these times are afraid to show love to others because of other people’s bad experiences when they attempted to reach out to others in love, but God will always be there to help and guide a person from falling into error when they walk in love towards others. So don’t allow the pressure of fear in these times to take away your love, because fear in fact never presents when there is real love (1 John 4:18). The scripture says, “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him” (1 John 2:9-10).
This concludes our discussion on love. Always ponder on what I have been saying so far about love, and never forget that the most powerful force in the universe is not faith but love (1 Corinthians 13:13).
God bless.
Today’s Reading:
1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 3-4, Luke 10:30-37, Proverbs 21---
Nevertheless, if you are not born again you can do so today by saying this simple prayer below out with your mouth in faith, believing that Jesus Christ died and rose again for your sins.
Prayer for Salvation
Dear Lord, I believe Jesus died and rose again for me. Forgive me my sins and come into my life. I confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Thank you Father for doing this for me. Reveal yourself to me today. In Jesus name, Amen.
Congrats, your status has changed to that of a child of God, if you said this prayer in faith.