1 John 4:20
1 John 4:20
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
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What is it about being easier to do things when we don’t see them in front of us? It cuts across every field of life. For instance, it’s easier to say you’ll walk two kilometers every day until you get the chance to do it in reality, and you find you’re unable to do it. There’s something about having things right in front of us. Sometimes, it makes things harder to do. We often find it easier to “love” a God we haven’t seen but are handicapped to love those we see around us every day. It is easier to love a God that is imaginary to many than the physical people they can see and touch. However, believers are called to love just as God loves. To hate is not necessarily planning to kill your neighbor. It is simply a deviation from the true expression of love. With God, there is only love and hate. So, it’s either we’re loving our neighbors and doing all that 1 Corinthians 13 teaches to be its manifestation, or we are doing something less, which the Bible tags as hate. You cannot love God and hate your brother or sister. Loving God comes with loving other people. There are no gray areas. If we claim to love the invisible God, then we should be ready to love the visible brother and sister we interact with every day.
Dear Heavenly Father, please help me love people genuinely. Help me not keep my love in the realm of theory but that I am also able to practice it and show Your light to all men. Give me the grace to love all men just as I profess in words. May my actions back my words as I walk in the law of Your love. I open up my mind to forgiveness and forfeit every form of offense against anyone. People may offend me. They may be unkind and rude, but help me love them always. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.
1 John 4:8
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Psalms 89:1
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
1 John 4:1
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1 John 4:21
And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.