1 John 4:18-21
We need have no fear of someone who
loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what
he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do
to us and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves
us. So you see, our love for him comes as a result of his loving us
first.
If anyone says “I love God,” but keeps on hating his
brother, he is a liar; for if he doesn’t love his brother who is right
there in front of him, how can he love God whom he has never seen? And
God himself has said that one must love not only God but his brother
too.
The Living Bible
copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of
Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights
reserved.
This
morning as we left church, Timothy’s Sunday school teacher, Mrs.
Glenda, said to him…”Remember, God loves you!” Timothy got in the car
telling me that God loves us the MOST! I said, “Yes! Imagine…as much
as I love you – God loves you MORE! How can that even be possible?!”
We marveled the rest of the way home about how much God loves us and how
we wish we could see Him…but we know that He is with us. Someday, we
will see God face-to-face in Heaven – and it will be glorious. (We have
some pretty deep conversations in the short few blocks from church to
home!)
In the pre-K class, we studied Joseph, and how he trusted
God even as one bad thing after another happened to him. Through all of
this, Joseph trusted God. Our scripture memory verse has been Proverbs
3:5 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” (NIV). We have talked for
at least four weeks now about how Joseph trusted God…even when bad
things happened – and how we must do the same. We must believe that God
loves us the MOST…that He will take care of us, hear our prayers, and
meet our needs.
Greg and I spent the afternoon with family, and
when we returned home, we learned that once again, police officers have
been shot and killed – this time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As I caught
up on reading e-mail messages and social media posts, I was heartsick
to see that countless people have already begun a barrage of comments
and attacks on certain groups – and a particular individual.
Honestly,
I don’t know how I am supposed to teach our children that God loves us
and wants us to love others when so many who claim the name of Jesus are
spewing such hatred and have such unloving attitudes. I know that as
heartbroken as God is about all of the violence that is occurring in our
world…He must be equally devastated by the hatefulness being expressed
by some of His children toward others.
I hope we will all take a
collective breath and search our hearts – and prayerfully ask God to
work to bring about some serious attitude adjustments in many of us. We
cannot be part of the solution until we stop being part of the
problem…and hating others and assigning blame based on our own agendas
or personal preferences is a problem. I don’t know your heart…what might
have caused you to be so angry, fearful, or disapproving of a
particular person, race, ethnic group, sexual orientation,
socio-economic group, gender, religious belief – or whatever. I know
that sometimes people just don’t like someone else because of the way
that he/she looks, walks or talks. We humans are terribly judgmental!
But hear this…God is not pleased with our judgments!
If you are
bound and determined to continue judging someone else, then quit saying
you love God. Because scripture plainly states that we cannot love God
and hate our brother. If this offends you, take it up with God. I
cannot sugarcoat this. I plan to meet God face-to-face someday…and I
intend to be able to stand before Him and say with 100% assurance that I
loved my brothers and sisters…all of them.
This is a tall
order, because I must love not only those who are easy to love…but those
who want to hate – and hurt. I have to love the guy with the weird
hair and that dirty person who smells funny - and the person who hurt my
feelings. I have to love my “friends” who post ugly things on social
media and the people in the public spotlight who call each other
horrible names! I’ll tell you, I’m gonna have to spend some time on my
knees to accomplish this! But I am fully committed to doing it, because I
love God, and I know that He loves me even more. And this is what He
requires of me in return. What about you?©2016 Debbie Robus
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