"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
Matthew 5:38-40
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:43-45
My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved. God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
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.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved. God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
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.
I John 4:7-21
The statement that began this blog today is full of fear and not faith. Love is the greatest power that we still have not understood or fully used. We become so scared that we first move to anger and hate, rather than love. We miss out on the power of love and what it can offer. When we think and act with anger we are not being ruled by God, because God is love. Actually we are becoming just like the ones we say are our enemies. They hate us, they want to kill us, they are not of God even though they say and think they are. "You cannot know God if you do not love." Love is a power that is not used, even by Christians. People seem to be attracted to fear, anger and angst. The news feeds on it, we eat it up, we ask for it, and spend our days waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
Jesus offered us another way. Jesus offered us a way to have peaceful relationships, to show and be God on this earth, and Jesus always encouraged his followers to love. Jesus lived in a world that was occupied by terrorist, but said nothing about them. Rather he encouraged people to love. Jesus said this about the people who killed him:
When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
Luke 23:33-34
So do we really believe that Christ would not "turn the other cheek?" I can know about scripture and be able to quote it - but does that mean that I really know it? William Penn once wrote that "Those people who are not governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." This could be our lower self at work in the form of hate and anger. It could also be real tyrants that get to rule our life from the outside because we give into the power of hate and anger rather than the power of love. God is love. What will govern your life?
Namaste'
Posts
1 comment:
This may be your best yet!! I LOVE it...:) Thanks so much. This is so good...I have a friend and my son whom I want to share this with. Still trying to teach my child that two wrongs to not make a right and that we have to turn the other cheek sometimes. He is nine, so hard for him to understand. The world does not feed them the truth. They are taught about getting even, etc. So, thanks so much. :)
Post a Comment