1John 5 starts out mentioning that everyone who loves the father also loves Jesus, how will people know we love God? By the way we love God’s children and obey his commands. When our children were little and first started learning the word no, their nature was to go ahead and do whatever we said no to. But as we love them and teach them why we say no about things that are not good for them they learn, they trust, they find wisdom, they come to realize that following what we say gives them a better life. Our rules are not to keep them from fun or to harm them, they are to protect and help them to go through life with less troubles.
The 10 commandments have often been seen as a set of rules to follow. But the 10 commandments are a blessing to us in our lives. Jesus simplified the 10 Commandments by saying that if you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then love your neighbor as yourself, you’ll fulfill the law. Why did He have 2 when God gave us 10? He summarized the 10 Commandments. When you look at the 10 Commandments the first 4 are all about loving God, the final 6 are all about loving people. If you love people as you love yourself, you should not be committing sins against the final 6 Commandments. One of the most important things is knowing what the 10 commandments actually mean. Jesus implies at one point that we’ve all broken all 10 Commandments. People will say they’ve never murdered anybody, #6 thou shall not murder. Jesus explains in the beatitudes that murder is not limited to ending someone’s life. It also means defaming someone’s character, demeaning somebody, running them down. Committing adultery is not limited to having sex with someone else’s spouse, although that’s a big one. If we treat everyone else with the love and respect that we wish to be treated with, our lives will be a whole lot better. If we don’t have critical thoughts, words and actions towards others, our level of stress in our lives will be greatly diminished. That’s how much God loves us, he gave us 10 basic guidelines to bless us in our lives to help us to live the best lives that we can live and enjoy His peace, and it’s all about loving God and other people. Simple, right! Don’t we wish it was that simple. I’m thankful that when I turn to God for his help, He always lovingly helps me through every situation no matter what I’ve already said or done.
So how do we love on others as we love ourselves? When I think of that question I think about how I sacrificially love my wife and children. They’re wants and needs always come before mine. But they are my family, honestly, I don’t want to love a lot of other people like that. We all know people in your lives we interact with regularly who don’t know Jesus Christ. Maybe some of these people we don’t like. Have you ever thought, “I’m not going to take the time to witness to that person, that would definitely have to be up to somebody else if that person is going to go to heaven”. Do you think that would be breaking any of the 10 Commandments? Ouch! If we loved others as we love ourselves, it would be a priority for us to witness to these people also. That’s a tough one for me.
There is a young woman, mid 40s, in my community who I have not liked mainly because I know she supplied my oldest daughter with Vicodin and I don’t know what else when my daughter was heavily addicted to drugs several years ago. Did I mention I did not like this person? I mean I really really did not like her at all but, I did my best to be nice, funny and seemingly caring as I sometimes talked with her about craziness in her life. I tried to be caring on the outside but inside, I wasn’t going to waste my time telling her about Jesus, she was addicted to drugs and wouldn’t listen anyway, right? Last spring I was getting in my car outside the lumberyard and who was sitting in her car next to mine, she was. She hadn’t seen me and I could’ve drove away without her knowing because her nose was stuck in her phone but, I said hi. I know now that this was a God ordained meeting as she was so excited to see me and said she’d been meaning to call me to tell me the great news that she had found Christ in her life and was 3 weeks clean from drugs. Why would she want to call me? Apparently she felt loved and cared for by me. We talked for about 30 minutes then she followed me to my house so I could give her a Charles Stanley book “The Source of My Strength” to read and she did. She calls me when she lashes out at someone in a fit of anger because she trusts I will be compassionate, understanding, listen and speak God’s wisdom and love to her. I love this girl and take her calls when it is not convenient, I will sacrifice what I want for what she needs.
God is so amazing and will speak His love through us even when we don’t mean it. I’m not worthy of being used like that but I am willing to be used anyway He desires. God is GOOD ALL the TIME! So, if you felt conviction about people you don’t witness to in your life remember, God’s love is bigger than we are. Our small attempts to be cordial can be used by God in a much larger scale. ALL the TIME, GOD is GOOD!
In 1967 was the first international satellite television production called Our World. John Lennon was asked to write a song that would be internationally recognized. The song he wrote, All you need is LOVE, it was a very simple song that the entire world could sing along to. John Lennon would not give credit to God‘s word, but the basic message of the song comes directly from God’s teaching to all of us, all we need is His love flowing through us to others.