One of life’s biggest stresses for me is when I know I need to respect someone for their position but in reality, I do not have an ounce of respect for them. It is especially hard if the lack of respect I feel for them is due to their inability to demonstrate God’s principles, God’s love, or God’s grace. I want to respond to their ungodliness with ungodliness. My tongue usually swells from biting it! My flesh wants to tell them what I think of them and how their behavior is not God pleasing. I try to tell myself and manipulate my mind by saying, “Sometimes God calls us to be His hands and sometimes He calls us to be His mouth!” Then the Spirit convicts me and I know that God does not need my mouth. I realize that I can hate their behavior but I cannot hate them. God expects me to love in all circumstances and to all people. I am sure that Jesus did not respect the Pharisees or Herod, but He submitted to their position to His death.
Let me assure you that when I am in these situations, I cannot love within my own power. The only way I can love is to let God love through me! I can’t say that I love God and then not let Him love through me. So today there is only one question . . . Do you love God by loving others?
If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
1John 4:20-21
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