These things I
command you,
that you love one
another.
If the world hates
you, you know
that it hated Me
before it hated you.
If you were of the
world, the world would
love its own. Yet
because you are out of
the world, therefore
the world hates you.
remember the word
that I said to you;
“A servant is not
greater than its master.”
If they persecuted
Me, they will also
persecute you. If
they kept My word,
they will keep yours
also.
But all these things
they will do to you
for My name’s sake,
because they do
not know Him who sent
Me.
John 15:17–21
We are not
to “love” one another because it is Christian. We are to love one another
because Jesus Christ commanded us to do so. If you love Jesus Christ you will
do what He commanded. If you love God, the Father, and the Holy Spirit you will
do all that God, the Godhead, that includes Jesus Christ, all that was
commanded by Him. I am afraid that too many people who call themselves
Christian, and they are, at least by God they are, are fearful to live the life
that God has outlined for us to live. We do not want to be persecuted,
therefore, we do not walk away from the so-called water cooler conversations
that turn into idle jokes and are often filled will illicit words and examples,
funny, yes to the unsaved, but not to a Christian for we are not to associate
with such ones: “Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits”
(1Corinthians 15:33). Oh, you say: “I don’t go to bars, or drink with them,
or do other things that would be considered an association. But you do
associate with them if you do not walk away from such things that are not of
God. Will they hate you? Yes, probably, but then they hate Jesus Christ before
they hated you. You are not of this world, heaven is your home you are just
a–passing thru, so goes that old hymn. If you are a lover of God, His Son, and
the Holy Spirit is in you then you are a servant, a bond servant, to the One
you love, and He is greater than you and will never give to you more than you
can handle. I know, at times it seems
that the problems are so great, yet do you believe that God is in control and
your situation is not going unnoticed by God? We are to grow in sanctification
and by doing so the world does not need to be necessarily told that you are a
Christian, they see Christ in all that you do. You are not doing this for your
sanctification, that is imparted to you by God who sanctified you when He
elected you, so you are legally sanctified and heaven awaits your coming, not
by what you do, but by the will of God. If we love our brothers and sisters in
Christ then we do all we can to assist them in their times of joy, and times of
trouble. Do they need their lawn mowed?
Do then need groceries? Do they need to have fellowship outside of
church? Do you invite, when you can, someone to come to you home to have lunch
or dinner, and to just be around other brothers and sisters? Or, is church all
there is and you go home, off to you world, and glad to have you church card
punched? Who are you living for? Now, there are times when you cannot do much
for you need that help, or other situations may occur. The question is: did you
push the ox into the ditch or did the ox by himself fall into the ditch?
As I write
this I am convicted of my own short fallings, those times when I allowed myself
to do that which I know not to do and I fall upon my knees to God and ask
forgiveness. I sinned against a Holy God, not that I am caught in my sin,
rather that I sinned even though I knew what not to do. I have been asked: “How
did that work out for you?” “Not well,” I answered. Hindsight is always 20/20,
but foresight is wisdom. The worst teacher is experience. The best teacher is
God who has revealed to us all we need to live this life in accordance to His
will. How do I know His will? Read His word, daily, meditate upon it, and pray
for guidance and the Holy Spirit will do just that. This life is for us to
enjoy, not to go around as some pious monk, or some pious Christian. We are to
live it, and enjoy all that God has done, His creation, His church, and our
families. Those times to go camping, or
shopping, or fishing (that is for me) and to create beautiful pictures, or some
art, to play music, to sing, dance, and be happy. How can we do this? Focus on this fact. God called you to eternal
life. God will be with you in this life. All we have to do is allow His
commandments to be our mantel. God is not some imaginary being, giving some
hope for eternal life. It was God in Jesus Christ that saved you and why not
then live for Him? I ask myself this same question. Yes, we must make decisions
that are hard: do it by the use of prayer and Scripture. Yes, not all will
agree with you, or your choices. If your choices are by means of God’s
commands, His word, what does that matter? Let me end this blog with this by
the apostle Paul: “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home
in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We
are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent form the body and to be
present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent,
to be well pleasing to Him” (2Corinthians 4:6–9).
Beloved, do not imitate,
What is
evil,
But what is good. He does
Good is of
God,
But he who does evil
Has not
seen God.
3John 11
Praise God Today In Your life
Richard L. Crumb
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