We as Christians, know what we are commanded by Jesus himself in John 13:34, that we should love one another, and the world will know, that are his disciples. And it is easy to understand, because God is Love. But loving others is a command, and it is not about what or how we feel about others.
You see, the Agape love of God, is more to do with us doing something to others or for others, rather than feeling loving them, or feeling love for them. I do not think Jesus commanded us to feel love for others but gave us a command to love others. And a command, is something we obey and do, rather than a feeling. And anyway, we can not force ourselves to feel love for other people anyway. But the command from God to love one another, is tightly related to what we are also commanded by Jesus to do to others, just as we would like them to do to us. Do you see that, Jesus told us to DO to others as we would like them to do to us. So, it is all about doing something to others, and not just a feeling or love. Sometimes, we actually, do not feel very loving to particular people, and we know, that we do not feel love in our hearts about them. Well, what does that mean? Does it mean, that we should not do anything good or positive to them, just because we do not feel love in our heart for them? I do not think so. No matter what we feel about others, we are commanded to do to them, just as we would like them to do to us. Yes, of course, it does not always mean, that others will do to us, just as we want them to do for us, but that is the goal, that is the command from heaven, on which we base what we will decide to do to others. Notice, I said decide, not feel, because that is what the command to love others is about. Because we want to obey God, that is why we decide to do them good, even if we do not feel like doing it. What about our enemies, people who do not like us, and are willing to do anything to hurt us, even without a cause? Naturally, we do not feel very loving towards our enemies, do we. Often, if we are honest, we can actually feel angry towards them, for treating us unfairly, hurting us without a cause. But, we are commanded by Jesus to love them. So, on one side of the coin, we can feel angry about our enemies, but on the other side of the coin, we can decide to say or do something good for them, because we are commanded so by God. It is not so easy sometimes to do that, but the Holy Spirit, by his love which is in our hearts, will help us to do so, in order for us to do, what we are commanded by God.
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The Bible says that we must admonish each other, and that we must teach each other, and if someone has a revelation, or a psalm, all things must be done in order for us to grow in our spiritual walk with God.
And of course, we are not only to teach each other the truths of the Word of God, but we are also to correct one another in love, when we need to be corrected, or when we need to correct somebody else. But that must be done in love, because if we do not have love, we are nothing, as the Bible says. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds us up. When we read Galatians 2:11-14, that Apostle Paul rebuked Apostle Peter, for acting in hypocrisy, when Peter was eating with the Gentiles, at one time, but when other Jews came, he did not eat with Gentiles anymore. So in that case, Paul was rebuking Peter for his mistake. In other words, iron sharpens iron. It is good for us to be 'sharpened' by one another, otherwise, we could become too 'dull' spiritually. But it is important to do that in love. It is easier for us to accept any correction, when we see the love for us, from the person correcting us. That is how love builds us up. It makes us more willing to accept any correction from other believers, even if we do not agree with them. At the end of the day, who does not want to be loved? Although the correction may be very difficult pill to swallow, the fact that it comes to us on the wings of love, makes it easier for us to accept it. I wonder how Peter felt about the rebuke from Apostle Paul? We do not know, because we do not know how Paul said it to Peter. We know that it is important not only what we say, but how we say it too. Sometimes, we can say the truth to someone, but not in a very nice way. Or vice versa. We can still say the truth, but in a nicer, and more acceptable way. So, although we read that Paul rebuked Peter, we do not actually know how Paul said it to Peter. Love makes a hard truth, easier to accept. And we can 'kill' a person with a joke. Although it is a joke, if we do not say it in a nice way, it can actually hurt a person, instead of making them laugh. So we have to be careful, how we 'sharpen' one another, just as a iron sharpens iron. |
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