LOVE WITHOUT HATE

 

LOVE WITHOUT HATE

I John 4:20 If someone says, "I love God," but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar, for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we have not seen? NLT

Saying you love God is easy, actually loving God is a totally different matter. So much of our expressions of love for God are merely lip service. If we were to really love God it would change how we live, view sin, think, and treat others.

Let’s be honest. There will always be people you don’t get along well with. There are those you would prefer to not just be around. What we need to be careful of is letting it get to the point where we develop harsh, even hateful feelings, for them. As believers, we cannot be in fellowship with God and have such harsh feelings towards others that there is no love for them. We are commanded by God to be vessels of His love for all people, even those we don’t like or who don’t like us.

John goes so far as to say that if we claim to love God and have such strong, negative feelings towards people, we are liars. What we say about God is simply not true. We don’t love Him at all.

Love is practical. It affects how we relate to people. If we can’t be civil and loving around those we have problems with, we are not able to really love God. Think about it.

God loved us when we were His enemies, a people living in sin. He was within His rights to not bother with us and let us go into hell. He did not have to die for our sins; He did not have to target us and invite us to repent; He did not have to adopt us into His family; He did not have to give us the Holy Spirit to help us; in fact, God did not have to do anything for us. But, He did. Why? Because He loved us before He created us and wanted to have fellowship with us both now and for all of eternity.

God loved us when we were at our worst. So, how can we not love one another? As His children, it is impossible for us to have the love of God in us and strongly dislike or hate a brother or sister in Christ.

It doesn’t matter what someone may have said or done, our part is to love. It does not mean that we have to be buddies with them, but it does mean we have to act towards them in a Christlike way and not speak ill of them to others. We must care when they are hurting or suffering and do what we can to help them, even if it’s only praying for them.

Love without hate; it’s God’s way.