Focus: 1 John 3:16 - KJV
16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
John 15:12-17
The concept of love appears lost on many. Jesus loves us to the extent that while we were yet sinners, He laid down His life for us to live. This means while we were unacceptable, He still loved us. And He has recommended to us the greatest love, which is for a friend to lay down his life for his friend. Unfortunately, many people, even though they claim to be Christians, choose the people they can relate with and those that they will never. Even those that they decide to relate with do not qualify for such love that makes them want to “lay down their lives” for them. In their dictionary, it is part of love to wish part of the brethren dead, deriving their authority from Peter’s treatment of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira. That however, is not the will of the master. And no one becomes His friend except those who do whatsoever He commands. So, what does He command? We are to love one another as He has loved us. That is the standard. Not the standard of Peter’s kind of love which he himself grew out of, or any other for that matter.
Beloved, it is therefore important for us to know that Christ expects us to go all out to offer life and life more abundantly to them who are in the danger of death from the hands of the enemy. This means, if any of the brethren appears to have been deceived, just like the woman was deceived and caused Adam to sin, we should go all out to ensure we recover the same from the jaws of death, even at the risk if our own lives. Christ laid down His life, despising the shame that was attached, that we may live. That precisely is what he expects from us. He does not expect us to sit in judgment over any of the brethren to condemn the same ahead of time, as none of us can operate as the righteous judge more than He Himself to whom the seat is reserved. We may not know the whole story and may end up destroying the one the Lord had appointed to help us, in our rage to judge and condemn him. Let us therefore, be sure of whom our Lord is and obey Him as Lord by ensuring we emulate His love gesture and genuinely loving the brethren, sticking our necks out for one another.
We pray that the Lord by His Spirit, will minister to the hearts of everyone that is named with the Lord to begin to love as prescribed by the Master, in Jesus’ name. We pray that as we begin to operate in love, the one who glorified Christ for His love for us, will glorify each of us also, in Jesus’ name. From this day henceforth, no gate of hell shall blur the vision of the brethren or anyone of them from seeing the need to love like Christ in the name of Jesus. By this, the power of God shall be stronger in the body of Christ, in Jesus’ name. None of us shall be found wanting on the command to love when Christ shall come for His Church, in Jesus’ name.
SOLUTION: Love genuinely and not with lip-service. Whatever is without love is against life. Offer life to the brethren by offering them love.
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