LOVE
What’s LOVE got to do with it? Everything. In these turbulent times its imperative we emphasize LOVE. 1 Corinthians 16:14 instructs us to, “Do everything in LOVE.”
Almost every action is predicated upon the amount of LOVE we receive. If we pay attention, our LOVE for some one usually correlates with the amount of respect we have for them. Respect is usually earned by what someone has done or can do. However, Matthew 25:40 states, “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” When LOVE and respect come together it’s a great thing. The true test is can we LOVE even when respect isn’t there. Respect is earned, LOVE is free.
To test whether we have true LOVE we must observe ourselves around those that we can’t relate to. It’s easy to express LOVE to the people and things in which we are related too. We must show forth that AGAPE LOVE. This type of LOVE is unconditional and isn’t warranted by anything.
Life is short. In a world where LOVE seems to be unpopular, we must be careful not to promote hate. We must not put down those that lift up. We must not associate toughness with callousness. Our youth have been misguided to believe they are savages rather than savants. We must be careful what we perpetuate and promote when we’re young because it will precede us as we get older.
In the bible it compares hate to killing.
1 John 3:15 says, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. Hate is the opposite of LOVE. These past few weeks the nation has been in calamity due to differences in color. Black against white and blue. We tend to focus on color rather than the root. This civil unrest is due to a lack of LOVE. The appearance of a temporary vessel should always be superseded by LOVE. In fact, there are many examples in the bible of The Lord punishing nations for letting things such as color separate them.
We can’t allow the inconvenience of the world’s ways to induce us to conveniently disregard The Word. The Word is LOVE. These harsh circumstances have influenced many to develop an eye for an eye mind set. Many develop that mind set while also seeking the Lord for answers. We can’t seek the Lord blindly. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind.”
Some in the world may applaud the retaliator. However, the Lord frowns upon it. If the sky cracked today would your heart be filled with hate or would you pass the LOVE test? Has the word just become rhetoric? We have allowed our oppressor to define our context. A word so powerful as “All” has been reduced to a word of separatism. It has become the antithesis of inclusiveness for many. How ironic. We have to be diligent in the Word and no longer let the devil confine us by redefining it. One day The Lord will come back to take what’s his. Let’s no longer accomplice the devil in his thievery, so that we may not be condemned.
Showing forth Love to a person who does wrong does not absolve them, but it does absolve us. Let’s be clear, a heinous act such as unjustly killing is never right.
For a cop to shoot a person multiple times who poses no threat, that is hate. For a person to kill cops who are helping to maintain peace, that is hate. However, even when hateful acts occur we must respond in LOVE. The Christly way.
The ultimate measure of a man is how he responds in adversity. No one measured up like Christ. Even on Calvary as he was being crucified, he forgave and even pardoned us. In a world that relies on hashtags and phrases to get a point across, we put our crosses down and disregard, “#WWJD.”
I was recently in a group me discussion where an interesting question was posed. The question was, “doesn’t the bible emphasize the importance of All?” Some one answered, “yes in relation to God but not in these circumstances.” I replied, “All is related to God.” We can’t turn off God and his Word when it’s comfortable to us.
We also can’t sit around and do nothing. We must act in LOVE. We cant become so inured by our circumstances that we allow them to desensitize us. In order to over come the plight we must take flight. We must soar. We must not only concentrate on the physical but we must also search for knowledge. Knowledge is our wings, our application of it determines how we fly.
Are you ready to fly? Are you ready to LOVE?
