Loving One Another
September 19th 2008
The Apostle John was sometimes regarded as the Apostle of love. It was his favorite subject. Todays reading from 1 JOHN Ch 3 v 11 - 15 is talking about Christians loving other Christians. This is tough teaching when you think of some of the divisions in the church, but the Bible is unequivocal on how we should respond to fellow believers.
- In v 13 we see that the world will hate true Christians due to their righteousness. The graphic example John gives here is Cain’s response to his righteous brother in GENESIS Ch 4.
- Hate is equated to murder in v 15 and it says there is no salvation for someone who has hatred for a Christian.
- 1 JOHN Ch 4 v 20 - 21 reinforces this teaching stating you cannot love God and hate your brother.
- JOHN Ch 13 v 34 is where Jesus tells us to love our Christian brothers. He explains why in the next verse; "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another".
To love others is a challenging command, particularly when we see it is the agape or unconditional love being demanded. To achieve this form of love we need to learn to see people the way Jesus does and to include ourselves in this. Jesus loves me unconditionally and if we apply the same measure of grace and forgiveness towards others, then loving our brothers and sisters in Christ becomes more of a natural response.