Tag: Love your neighbours

Posted in Humility, JESUS, LOVE, Uplifting Christ

It was LOVE

Posted on by Uplifting Christ

Could He have saved Himself? Yes, but He chose to do otherwise. The shame, beating, spitting, mocking, the CROSS, etc couldn’t stop Him from sacrificing His Life for us. It was LOVE that held Him to the Cross.

Jesus said that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, KJV) Nothing could quantify the depth of His Love for you.

Three things to consider about His Love:

  1. He chose to be man in order to understand our nature (by dealing with things we face as human). The scripture says He was tempted in various ways yet he didn’t sin.
  2. He chose to be poor so that we can become rich.
  3. He chose to die so that we can be bought back to God.

Genuine Love is about Sacrifice and Jesus gave up all to show how much He loved us when we least deserved it. Seeing how Jesus loves you,

  • How have you sacrificed your Life to LIVE for Jesus?
  • Do you seek God’s interest in the things you do?
  • How about your neighbor, do you love him/her as much you do to yourself?

The world celebrates LOVE today. We can seize this opportunity to demonstrate our Love for God, and our neighbors. Yeah! that person who doesn’t deserve your LOVE. Don’t forget that Jesus Christ did it when we least deserved it. It’s all about LOVE

It’s important to note that your love for God and man will be tested daily, and how to pass this test is to learn to:

  1. Be thankful to God for everything (that comes your way)
  2. Be merciful to your neighbor (regardless of what he/she does.)

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mark 12:30, NIV)

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35, NIV)

Posted in FORGIVENESS, LOVE

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR

Posted on by Uplifting Christ

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:20.

  • Keep His Command

God is love and He shows us this love daily. He gives us life, forgives our sins, heals our diseases, cleanses us from unrighteousness, etc.

The question is;

What could we do to reciprocate His love?

My answer is to love Him back.

If that is the case,

How do I know I love Him?

My answer is “keeping His commands”.

In John 14:15 from the NIV, Jesus said “If you love me, you will obey what I command.

KJV says “if you love me, keep my commandments”.

AMP says “If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.”

And MSG says “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you.”

What command was He talking about?

In Chapter 13, and verse 34 of the same John, He said “A new command I give you: LOVE one another. As I have LOVE you, so you must love one another.” In verse 35, He continued that “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The point is clear that a true follower of our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who loves his or her neighbour in words, and in deeds. Therefore if you don’t love your brother or sister, then the LOVE of God is not in you. You are not walking in light. You are still walking in darkness according to the scriptures

  • Gift of Love

Love is the greatest gift you could ever offer to your neighbour. It is supreme. It is the greatest among the three giants; FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. The reason being that GOD is LOVE: 1 John 4:8 “whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Friends, let us take the opportunity we have each day  to show our Love to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, by LOVING others. 1 John 4:20 says “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar”

Examine yourself today;

  1. Do you find it difficult to love someone (a friend, relative, etc, because they hurt you)?
  2. Do you have someone you don’t want to see, hear from, talk to, etc?
  3. Do you hate someone on this planet?
  4. Do you easily forgive when your neighbour sin against you?
  • The word “HATE”

“Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him” 1 John 3:15. I always advise people to stop using the word “HATE”. God is love and we have to talk about love. Instead of saying “I hate this phone because it is given me enough headache”, you could say “I pray this phone works properly because I love it some much”. I bless things so they stay strong and beautiful all the time. I would also encourage you not to hate your fellow human being. It does not matter whether that fellow is a Christian or not. Love everybody you see.

  • What God wants from you?

God is not expecting you to show others that you LOVE him. Rather, He wants you to show Him that you LOVE your neighbour. “If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”.  “12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” 1 John 4:12 New Living Translation (NLT) When you meet someone and he bleeds red, love him generously because he is your brother or sister.

Today, even now, if you have anything against anyone, no matter the intensity please forgive, and make peace. Don’t go about bragging about your love for God while your spirit is not at peace with someone. You would be deceiving yourself. I beseech you to let go all the pains, hurts, disappointments, heart breaks, etc and be at peace with all men.

Show love to your wife or husband. Love your friends, love those who curse you. Continue loving those who hate you and say all manner of things against you. You may not meet some of the people you see today tomorrow.

If that person dies today, when and where are you going to make peace? Today is the day we have. Make the most of the day. Love your neighbours

I will close with this:

1 John 3:21-24 The Message (MSG)

 21-24And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.

Posted in LOVE

HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE?

Posted on by Uplifting Christ

A new command I give you; love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

Love is the greatest gift you could give to your neighbour. It is the distinguishing mark of Christ followers – Christians. Don’t call yourself a disciple of our Lord Jesus if you find it hard to Love a single soul on earth. Sometimes it amazes me when I see Christians fighting one another, cheating one another, etc. That is not how Christ wants us to live. He demonstrated His love by sacrificing His own life for us.

1 John 3:16 tells us what love is: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us”. It was not easy as the story may sound but He endured to the end. The worst rejection in the history of mankind was at Calvary when God turned His face from His only begotten son because of you and me. I could feel the pains He went through as He carried the cross, and when He cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” God forsook Him. Jesus, despite the rejection, pains, mockery, etc pleaded for mankind on the cross. He said in Luke 23 that “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” This was His love for us and He is doing the same at the Father’s right hand; interceding for us.

Friends, a servant is not greater than His master. Thus He said “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” This is how we know what love is; Jesus Christ laid down His own life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brother.

Love is SACRIFICE. If you can’t sacrifice, you can’t love.

Human beings are people; they will hurt you, insult you, betray you, blackmail you, gossip about you, cheat on you, beat you, break your heart, steal from you, annoy you, etc, yet the master says you must love one another.

Let us make every effort to leave the past behind, forgive one another, and love one another. If anyone says “I love God” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. (I John 4:20). No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

I will close with this, if there is a single person or soul you hate on this planet, God sees you as a murderer. The scripture tells us in I John 3:15 that anyone who hates his brother is a murderer. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth. AMEN! If you are finding it hard to forgive someone, send me mail; upliftingchrist@gmail.com
God bless you