For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”
1 John 3:11.
You’ve heard the old song, ‘Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage?” I’m sure we all have. It’s an old one but a fun, little song, that my grandparents sang for light-hearted fare. Love makes the world go round. Love? It’s a classic! It’s a relevant theme that has flourished through the ages and never goes out of style. God designed it for good and blesses His people with it but sadly the world cheapens it and flaunts it and uses it in the wrong way.
God is the author and creator of love. He is love and His Word is a love letter to His people, whom He loves with unconditional love. A love that transcends far beyond the ecstasy of the physical love and marriage the world knows! His love letter is our guidebook for this journey of life and our defence against the enemy. Hebrew 4: 12 says, “It’s alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” His love letter is a message of hope to the hopelessly lost and dead in trespasses and sin. His is a message of Truth for those deceived by the enemy and victory for the down and out.
Our verse is an awesome word from John, who reminds us of the underlying love theme in God’s word from the very beginning and the very foundation of our salvation. It’s so easy to lose sight of it because life happens, people hurt people and love becomes difficult if we take our focus off of Christ. John knew it well and goes on to warn his hearers not to be like Cain, whose jealousy led him to murder Abel, his brother. Let’s take care not to crush the spirit of another because of envy or jealousy in our ministries, families and places of work or school.
Love and forgiveness go together somewhat like love and marriage. One will follow the other in this Christian walk. At least it should if we live to bring glory to God, the author of love. To love and forgive is a difficult action when someone has taken from us and left us wounded, yet it’s a command and true evidence of Christ indwelling us! Someone said, “We don’t just send our forgiveness out into oblivion but, rather, we place it in God’s hands. We turn it over to the all-knowing, righteous judge! The one who says, “I’ll take care of that for you, just leave it with me! No one better give you a difficult time, or they’ll have me to answer to.”
It’s a comforting thought to think about our forgiveness being placed in God’s hands. Remind yourself about that the next time there is a need to forgive and love another. His message is clear and we can be victorious over the pain, hurt, and rejection. Let’s forgive to free ourselves and give it to God to deal with because it’s the age-old message and the one we’ve heard from the beginning of time….”We should love one another.”
#Brokenandloved
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 