Tag Archives: love of God

What Is Hatred?

Christian life, , ,

WHAT IS HATRED?

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must love their brother and sister (1 John 4: 20-21).

What comes to mind when you read the word “hate”? Do you think of actions like insulting, swearing, ignoring or deliberately harming the person you hate? Hatred may include treating someone cruelly, for example, but the Bible’s version of hatred is more explicit than that.

Jesus connected anger with murder.

You have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment (Matt. 5: 21-22a).

Hatred, like anger, begins in the heart. When one is angry with someone, for whatever reason, one has an underlying attitude of contempt. It is impossible for one person to make another angry. “You make me angry!” is not true. A person chooses to respond in anger when another provokes him.  If he dwells on the offence long enough, he will begin to hate the offender.

However, hatred is more than an attitude towards another person. One does not have to hold malice in the heart to hate. Hatred is as much indifference to another’s need as ill-will is towards that person.

Jesus told a parable in Matt. 25, which illustrates this point. At the end of the age, when He gathers the nations for judgment, He will measure righteousness by an unexpected standard. How did the individual treat his brother? God recognises that people express their love for Him by the way they treat one another. If someone sees a brother in need and does nothing about it, He interprets their neglect as hatred.

“But isn’t that a bit harsh?” you may ask. In what way can we show our love for God? We cannot do anything for God to express our love for Him except love His people. How can we love His people? We can do whatever we can to make their lives comfortable. Jesus said that we ought to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the sick and the prisoner and relieve suffering wherever possible. He does not expect us to save the world. However, there are simple things we can do meet people’s need where we are.

Assisting people in need does not mean that we must only give them money or goods. There are many ways to show God’s love to those who cross our path every day. A kind word or a word of encouragement goes a long way to lift the spirits of a disheartened individual. We can offer practical help in many different ways by giving our time and attention sometimes just to listen. A listening ear often does wonders for a downcast soul.

What does Jesus ask of us, His children? He wants us to be aware of the people around us. We are often so self-absorbed that we are oblivious to the pain others suffer. We have much to give if we turn our attention away from ourselves. Becoming aware of others and intervening where we can is the right thing to do.

However, Jesus did not instruct us to become busybodies. We need to respect the dignity and privacy of others. We must step in and help only when people value our assistance, not when we become interfering or controlling.

We can just as easily steal from another when we withhold help from him as when we take what does not belong to us. We need to be aware that we express our love for Jesus by our obedience to His commands. He summed up every detail of His desire for our lives in the two greatest commandments:

On one occasion and expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, ’Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the Law?’ He replied. ‘How do you read it?’

He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ’Do this and you will live,’ (Luke 10: 25-28).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

Love Is Action

Bible Study, , , , ,

LOVE IS ACTION

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth (1 John 3: 15-18).

As I read through John’s letter, I become aware that he is steeped in the teachings of Jesus.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.’(Matt. 5: 21-22).

We know that these are the words of Jesus but what was He getting at? The act of murder begins far back in the mind of the perpetrator. John missed out all the in-between bits and went to the heart of the issue. Jesus taught His disciples that murder begins in the attitude of the murderer long before he commits the act.

There was something Jesus hated with a passion in the hearts of the Pharisees – contempt for another person. This is the heart of idolatry – “I am better than you.” Arrogance, according to 1 Sam. 15: 23 is idolatry.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

When one person elevates himself above another, the despised person is in his way and becomes dispensable. Long before the actual act of murder, the “murderer” has done the deed in his heart.

Once again John is identifying the root which produces the fruit. God’s love cannot exist side by side with hatred in the same person. Any ill will towards another is the fruit of selfishness which is the root of a heart that has never been changed by the power of God.

What did John mean by laying down our lives for our brothers? Did he literally mean that we must die for one another? It could in the context of the vicious persecution that threatened the lives of the Christians in John’s day. Believers were the targets of both Roman and Jewish hatred. It would have been easy for believers to retaliate with hatred towards their persecutors.

But John makes the issue of loving our brothers far more basic. During the reign of Domitian, who was nicknamed “the beast”, only those who worshipped him and received a mark to identify them as worshippers were permitted to buy and sell at the local market. That left believers who refused to worship him and had, therefore not received his mark, destitute. “Laying down their lives” for their fellow believers was as simple as sharing their meagre supply of food or goods with them.

John was adamant that true love for God was measured, not in believing the right things but in doing the right things. How tragic that there are thousands of students in Bible schools and universities across the world who are diligently studying theology and filling their heads with knowledge about God in the abstract so that they, in turn can pass on that knowledge to congregants in thousands of churches around the world while the hungry are still hungry and the poor are still poor. I know because I was one of them! Not once in the three-and-a-half years that I was in Bible College, was I taught that my ministry was to meet the needs of others at my expense.

Of Josiah, king of Judah, God said, through the prophet Jeremiah,

‘He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?’ declares the Lord (Jer. 22: 16).

Paul wrote to the Roman church that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. If we are truly born of God, the love of God is in us, but it is up to us to express that love by giving it away to others in need. Hatred comes from the root of selfishness. Love is the fruit of a life that has been captivated by the love of God. The fruit displays the nature of the root.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

Nothing Can Separate Us

Bible Study, , , ,

NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

“As it is written:                                                                                                                                   For your sake we face death all day long;                                                                                         We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life; neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future; nor any powers; neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39.

These are some of the most loved and treasured words in the whole Bible. Over the past eight chapters, Paul built his case for the power and effectiveness of the gospel against the backdrop of real hardship. Believers were alone in the world. Both Jews and Gentiles were against them, and not just mildly antagonistic; they were murderously anti them – to the extent that they martyred Christians everywhere for their faith, even as Paul wrote.

Even as I write, the persecution of believers is escalating in the Middle East. Brutality against people simply because they believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, is driving people from their homes and taking their lives in hundreds and thousands.

Did Paul have an answer to this carnage? Does the gospel really work? Why does God allow these things to happen? Why does He not intervene to protect His people? Where is His power now?

God has given us enough evidence to persuade us of His love for us. He did intervene – but not just to rescue us from physical death. There is so much more to life than that. He sent His only Son to rescue us from eternal death. By dying and rising again, Jesus conquered death. It no longer has the power to hold us in its eternal grip. Yes, His children may have to face a gruesome and horrible death, but it is only the gateway to a new life where there is no more death.

Killing people for their faith is the worst that the enemy can do. All they are doing is facilitating what must happen to us anyway. Jesus viewed His death from another perspective – not as the violent end to His life or as a terrible waste of a young life, but as the planting of a seed. From His death would come a harvest of new life in the many who would believe in Him.

One of the early church fathers, Tertullian, wrote of the martyrdom of believers in his day, “As often as we are mown down by you, the more we grow in numbers; the blood of the Christians is the seed.” (http://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/tertullian).

Those who kill Christians think that they are getting rid of them. If only they would realise that every one they plant in the ground will produce a harvest of many more. Since God has done everything necessary to bring us back to Himself, there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can separate us from Him love.

Whatever happens to us, good or bad, can only serve to strengthen our faith in Him and our experience of His faithfulness. God allows us to go through tough experiences, not to punish us or alienate us from Him but to purify our faith and to strengthen our confidence in Him. He surrounds and steadies us in the storms of life so that we can know, without a doubt, that we are His deeply loved children.

Does the gospel work? Yes! A thousand times, yes! Jesus died to remove our sin and reconcile us to the Father. His life in us gives us power to overcome the desire to satisfy fleshly lusts and sets us free from the fear of death. Tragic as it is that believers are being slaughtered for their faith in Jesus, death is not the end but the doorway into God’s immediate presence and the fullness of life.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Face Of The Father

Bible Study, , ,

THE FACE OF THE FATHER 

“‘I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me, but if someone comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes only from God?

”But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?'” John 5:41-47 (NIV).

Listen to this man! Every word He spoke to the Pharisees drove the nails deeper into their coffins.

Jesus claimed to be the truth (John 14:6) and if He was who He said He was, these men who were so convinced that they were right, ought to have taken heed to what He was saying because it was His word that would, in the end, be their judge (John 12:48).

He put His finger on the thing that was the chasm between them and Him — ‘I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.’ Had they captured God’s heartbeat throughout the course of their history, when He agonized over their failure to understand the love He had for them and His passion that they would be to one another what He was to them, they would have recognized that Jesus was the mirror image of the Father.

They claimed Moses as their authority and yet Moses was the one who recorded all God’s dealing with them through their years of wandering in the wilderness. The evidence of God’s love was there if they would open their eyes and ears, but all they could see was the rules and ritual that turned them into the very slave-drivers from whom God had set them free.

The face of Jesus is visible throughout the pages of the Old Testament if they would only look for it but they were too blinded by their own self-interest to see it. They were too drunk on the accolades they received from others to recognise the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

There is great pathos in the words of Jesus. He does not utter them with accusation but with grief because He knows what of what they have forfeited by their blindness. He knew that the day would come when their lives would be paraded before them, every scene, every response and every choice. The blindfold would be off and they would see the implications of every refusal and every rejection of the potential that was in them.

God is not a vindictive judge, waiting to get even with those whose blindness prevents them from seeing the glory that could be theirs if they would only take Him seriously. His heart breaks for the wasted potential of those who throw their lives away on useless pleasure, self-indulgence and even self-contempt that leads them down the road of self-destruction.

The arms of Jesus were wide open to the very men who were planning to kill Him. Hear the sob in His voice when He said, ‘You will not come to me that you might have life.’ It takes courage to admit that you have been wrong; that your way does not work; and that the road you have chosen leads to a dead end.

His adversaries were nit-picking about carrying a mat on the Sabbath. Jesus was offering them the gift of eternal life which no amount of rule-keeping could earn for them. They walked away in disgust and resolved to silence Him when they got the opportunity because they did not want the life He offered.

What about you?