Set Apart for Genuine Love

We have this incredible ability to treat people well and yet have hostility towards them. It shows the capability in us as people to “fake love” really well. We can say a lot with our words when none of it is true in our heart! We can walk away and speak terribly of that person behind their back. What should be said of this?

     “But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15–16) 

     As God’s children, we are called to be “holy”, meaning that we are set apart. To be holy implies that we should be more like Jesus and less like the world around us because the one who called us is holy.

     I believe that we can allow “fake love” to seep into the way we treat other brothers and sisters in Christ. It can happen when we let gossip, disagreements, conflicts, & differences in opinion and perspectives go unaddressed & unresolved.

     How do we grow in holiness to be more Christ-like to set ourselves apart from this “fake love” we can see? Look at the words of 1 John 4:20-21.

     “If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.”

     These words cut straight to our hearts. We are liars if we say “I love God” and hate our brothers or sisters in Christ. While we think of hate to be just an attitude in our heart towards someone, John shows that hate is also an intentional decision to not love your brother or sister in Christ. Love is action, and therefore to hate is to intentionally decide to not act.

     If you do not love your brother or sister whom you can see, you cannot love God whom you have not seen. It is clear that there is no way one could have love for God if they do not love their brothers and sisters, God’s children! Jesus commanded us and made clear that if we love God, we love one another. There is no doubt, church family, that we love God and we love our brothers and sisters, but are we loving them in action, not just in feeling? How can we love them with action this week?

Pastor John