1 John 3:10-12
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. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
The subject of love one another came up many times in the letters written by John. According to him, if a person follows the will of God, he must also love brothers and sisters; on the contrary, if a person cannot love brothers and sisters, he cannot possibly be following God's commandments. John even said that those who don't love brothers are not children of God - This is a truly serious matter! In the church today, we often feel that while it's great for us to love one another, it doesn't hurt much if we don't as long as we all love God, so it's hard to accept such extreme teaching by John.
Actually, if we truly understand God's will, we won't dare to casually criticize and judge our brothers and sisters. Whenever I hear about how brothers and sisters criticize one another either within a church or between churches, I feel really sad. The fact is that one day we'll meet in heaven and we together forever. If we are attaching each other on earth, how are we going to face each other when we meet in heaven? If we think about this, wouldn't we want to accept and bear with one another? May God has mercy on us and help us to love one another, for this is what we have "heard from the beginning."
John also reminded us that we ought not to be like Cain, who was jealous of brother Abe and just killed him. Perhaps we won't kill others like Cain did, but often we hurt others with words. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that "anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment... But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." Very often we are not watching our words careful; consequently we stumbled many people, but we still thought we are being honest in love! The kind of honesty that the Bible taught about is not simply voicing our opinion or straight-shooting word of fury. Honesty in the Bible refers to the truth and word of God, or word of God that is preached in love but not our own words. When the word is God is released, there will be healing, comfort and blessing.
Pray with Pastor Tong
Lord, you are the source of love, so please help us to bear with and accept one another in the church. Pour into our heart the sacrificial love that you manifested on the cross, so that we would know how to interact in love, but not hurting each other with our word. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!
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