"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).
God wants us to and expects us to love each other. "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). God is love, and He expects us to live in love. But how do we do that?
First we have to establish what love is and what it is not. Love is not a feeling. Love is an act. Love is to do. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave ... To love is to give, it's not to receive. Receive is good, receive is great, but to show love, we have to give. What should we give?
First of all we should give ourselves to the Lord. God gave His Son to us and for us, and we should give ourselves to Him. However, there's also another side of this. If we're to walk in love, we must walk in love towards other people. And that means loving them, and treating them as we would want them to treat us.
We started this text with Love covers a multitude of sins. What does that mean for you and me in our everyday lives? It means that if I love someone, I don't gossip about him or her; if I love someone, I protect their reputation as I would my own. If I love another person, I wish everything good for him or her and I let their needs and wants go before my own needs and wants.
That's real love, that's the giving that God showed us. He gave himself, and He expects us to do the same. We can do it in God's power in the Holy Spirit.
"This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother"(1 John 3:10). Loving my brother is a sign that I am a child of God.
Can I do it? Yes, because "... hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Romans 5:5). God's love is poured out in our hearts, it's up to us to give that love "right of way" in our lives.
God wants us to and expects us to love each other. "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). God is love, and He expects us to live in love. But how do we do that?
First we have to establish what love is and what it is not. Love is not a feeling. Love is an act. Love is to do. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave ... To love is to give, it's not to receive. Receive is good, receive is great, but to show love, we have to give. What should we give?
First of all we should give ourselves to the Lord. God gave His Son to us and for us, and we should give ourselves to Him. However, there's also another side of this. If we're to walk in love, we must walk in love towards other people. And that means loving them, and treating them as we would want them to treat us.
We started this text with Love covers a multitude of sins. What does that mean for you and me in our everyday lives? It means that if I love someone, I don't gossip about him or her; if I love someone, I protect their reputation as I would my own. If I love another person, I wish everything good for him or her and I let their needs and wants go before my own needs and wants.
That's real love, that's the giving that God showed us. He gave himself, and He expects us to do the same. We can do it in God's power in the Holy Spirit.
"This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother"(1 John 3:10). Loving my brother is a sign that I am a child of God.
Can I do it? Yes, because "... hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Romans 5:5). God's love is poured out in our hearts, it's up to us to give that love "right of way" in our lives.
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