Been Bitten By the Love Bug?

Christian love…..  These very words spoken can generate warm fuzzies in the heart and make one feel spiritually justified in their relationships, while at the same time living in estrangement from certain fellow believers.  This is not true Christian love.  We are living in deception.

The Bible speaks of love for the brethren and the importance of “Christian love” among believers in very serious terms and ones that we would do well to take heed to.  When salvation comes to the human heart and a life is transformed by the power and Holy Spirit of God, all things are to be transformed.  Our desires change, habits change and actions change.  The things we once loved are changed and new loves take their place. 

Why then, is it so difficult for some professing Christians just to get along?  If we are walking in the Spirit of God, then we are going to love what the Spirit of God loves.  Because “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost…”, should we not be empowered to love what He loves?  That “shed abroad” love refers to a gushing out of love.  That kind of overflowing love is hard to contain!

I spoke with a new Christian friend recently and she said something very profound to me.  I have contemplated her statement ever since.  She said that one of the things that has touched her life the most since her salvation has been the genuine care and Christian love that she has experienced since attending our church.  It reminded me of what the Bible says in John 13:34-35,  “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”  Christ’s love for us is a very powerful thing.  It’s more than just sweet words.   Christ’s love demanded action and if His love be in us---then it ought to be seen, felt and heard in us also. 

I am so thankful for the loving Christians who have left an imprint on my friend’s life.  Your genuine Christianity has been noticed.  But then I also thought of those who have lost that first love for their fellow Christians. Love has grown sour, cold or indifferent. Desires to reach out to others, sacrifice for others or even just enjoy fellow believers has diminished.   How do we ever expect to reach lost relatives, friends or neighbors when we cannot love those who share the same Heavenly Father with us? 

I John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.”

How can we honestly say we love someone that we rarely desire to speak with?  How can we say we love the brethren when we find ourselves constantly consumed with little things that annoy us?  How can we honestly profess to love others when we are easily offended by them?  A continually offended heart is a self-consumed, selfish heart.  That is not love, dear one.   You might be doing a great job in tolerating a sister or brother in Christ but please do not call it love.  That is hypocrisy.

I John 4:20-21 “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.”

You might say, “Mrs. Shaffer, I don’t hate so and so, we just don’t see eye to eye.  Our personalities clash.”  What we justify, the Bible may condemn.  I Peter 4:8 “And above all things have fervent (boiling) charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”

Our boiling over, red hot love for others will literally cause us to look past what may annoy our own flesh.  That is what Jesus Christ did for us when He went to the cross.  It was His love for us sinful wretches that caused Him to hang on those nails in our place.  We are called to “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5

Let me encourage all of us to love one another with a pure heart and fervently.  The world around us is watching!  Our non-hypocritical love is an evidence of the love of God that has been shed abroad in our heart.  Is real love seen in you?  Is it clearly shown and evidenced by your walk, talk and manner of life? 

Let’s be willing to truly examine our hearts in this area.  Someone’s eternity depends on it.