What Defines You?
Scripture:
20If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4:20-21
Observation:
The point of this passage is simple. If you love God you must love others. Jesus earlier defined others for us in the Sermon on the Mount. We must love those who love us and those who hate us. We must love those who bless us and those who curse us. We must love those who do good to us and those who mistreat us. We are not given the option to pick and choose whom we love. If we love God we must love others, for single person is the created image of God. If we profess our love for God, yet have hatred towards even one person we are liars.
“8But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:8
Application:
As Christians we often overlook the sin of lying. We go around professing that we are Christians, professing that we love God, but yet we have hate in our heart. By the definition that John gives at the end of chapter four, how many of us can truly say we love God? The ideas of loving God and loving others are intrinsically connected. Too many Christians have come to think that it is ok to live with hatred in their hearts. The ironic thing about that is that Christianity has become defined by what it hates, who it hates, how it hates, instead of by love. We have even begun to define God as an angry, spiteful being, who hates people. We have begun to define God who is love, by the hatred that indwells us.
We need to let go of our bitterness, we need to let go of our hatred, and we need to let go our sense of self-righteousness. We need to make sure that when people see us they define us by love not by hate. A question we need to ask ourselves is are you defined by what you love or by what you hate?
Prayer:
Lord, sorry for allowing hatred to take root in my heart. Sorry for allowing myself to be defined by hatred instead of your love. Sorry for professing you and making myself a liar. Lord give me your heart for people so I can love them like you do. Lord give me your eyes so I can see people the way you do, because it is so much easier to love them. Amen…
Comments
honestly I don't hate anybody in my life. there's some people i get along with more then others, but everyone to me is cool
But loving others means treating everyone equally. when you break down things like gossip, lying, etc. it all leads to love. so when you say you love somebody, that means you don't back stab them, don't break promises, and you don't let them down. I need to work on making sure I love everybody the same way god loves me, even though it's impossible to match God's love