God is love. John 3-16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.1st John 4:8-12 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
John 13: 34-35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." This is not an option it is a commandment given by the Lord Jesus Christ to his people. They were to love one another just as he loved them and was willing to die for them. For some unknown reason, these verses have fallen out of favor with the western church in favor of the prosperity and happiness doctrine. God does prosper, and he does heal as well as bring joy to his people, but that does not come without a condition and that condition is that we love one another. The foundation of faith is love.
But what is real love? First Corinthians the 13th chapter tells us.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It almost seems as if these verses did not exist in our Christian Bible or that they were not meant to be believed or acted on. As I pondered on this I thought that if the bible were to be removed from our places of worship most people would not really care since they are not doers of the word anyway. To many, the Bible is a relic from yesterday, but not to God who has placed his word above his name in importance. Psalm 138:2 "for you have exalted your Word above all your name."
In America, this is written in plain English and not a foreign tongue. It talks of love, not hate. It talks about equality and the need to help one another even when you don't feel like doing it or are looking down on your neighbor. These are the commandments for Christian discipleship, to love one another. There is no such thing as being a believer who does not show love to his neighbor or helps the poor, the widow and the orphan, this type of faith is a dead faith.
It is easy to believe the message of salvation with the healing and prosperity that it brings because as Oral Roberts once taught and confessed: "God is a good God." But when it comes to loving your neighbor it is a different ball game. This takes work because people by nature are unlovable. But God did not say "if your neighbor is nice to love him." Or "if your neighbor is white, black, Indian, or Chinese, hate him." He also did not say if your neighbor is a Hindu, a Muslim, or a Buddhist hate him." No, the message in the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, is, Love the Lord with all your heart and soul and Love your neighbor as yourself.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Does this sound like you?

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