Cross Your Heart?

 

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.  You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.  They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.  We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God  is love. This is how God showed his love: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love:  not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us,  we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if  we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in  God. And so we know  and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in the world we are like him.  There is no fear in love.  But perfect loves drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom  he has not seen. And he has given us this command:  Whoever loves God must also love his brother.." I John  4:1-21

 

Today's passage has a relational/directional aspect to it.   If we say we love God (vertical), then we must love out brother (horizontal).  If we hate our brother (horizontal) it precludes our ability to love God (vertical).  It would almost stand to reason that the two relationships discussed are going in different directions, and therefore, do not impede each other.  But, when combined, they make the shape of a cross. When Jesus died upon the cross, he was make the sacrifice upward to God for our atonement, and he sent the benefits of that sacrifice outward to us.

 

If we want to be right with God, we must be right with man- at least as far as loving them goes. We do not have to like everything they do;  nor do we have to condone things that we feel are wrong.  We do not have to allow people to abuse or mistreat us, but we must love.

 

So how does that look in application?  It means we can choose to have a different opinion, but not reject the person.  It means we can erect boundaries in relationships, but not harbor ill will in our hearts toward them.  To love, we must esteem them as a child of God.  We have to want the best for them and be able to pray for them.  Loving them may mean we pray that God convicts them of the abusive way they treat people.  Loving them may mean smiling in their direction while continuing to do what you feel you must do.

 

Oftentimes, we go in one extreme direction or the other.  We feel that in order to love people, we have to let them dump on us and do whatever they want.    Or we go in the opposite ditch and say, they are hateful;  therefore, I hate them.  This comes down to something I  once heard Joyce Meyer say, "We must separate our who for our do."

 

This means that we need to love the person no matter what.  But their actions?  We do not have to accept that.  We do not have to like it or pretend that we do.  When someone sins against you, it is godly  to explain to them how it makes you feel.  We just have to be careful that we do not attack their self-worth.

 

Love is a complicated matter.  It is an exercise we will practice every day in this life until we are finally and fully rejoined to our ultimate Love Source.  Can you  come up higher today in loving people?

 

Dear Lord, expose my heart to me.  Show me the people in my life that I am falling short in loving, and help me to love them in the right way.   In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

Sherri