Verse of the week:
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35
In this section, we will touch on two points:
1. How much does God love me?
2. What does He want me to do with that love?
1. How much does God love me? In John 6:37 it says God loves us "always." If you go back and look at the Greek translation, the word this is derived from is the Greek word "always." Yeah, that's right, always always means always. This means in every time, every circumstance, every condition. All ways.
You may or may not have accepted God, but God accepts us as we are. We often think we need to come to the Lord meeting some kind of standard, but that assumption is not of the Lord. He doesn't love us because of who we are, but because of who He is.
2. What do we do with it? We accept each other as God accepts us. Romans 15:7
How sobering is that thought? We're not talking just about an emotional love here. We're talking about the act of love. An action of acceptance. To say "love others as God has loved you" is an almost impossible calling. I can't die on a cross to save you. I can't go to hell and demand from Satan the redemption of all your sins. But in love, God accepts us as what we are right now. Not for what He knows we can be, but what we are. Can we do that? for each other? Can we accept each other as the flawed, broken, shameful sinners we really are? Can we accept each other knowing we will be hurt? God accepts us knowing we will betray him, we will fail him, we will hurt him, but he accepts us despite that. Not even despite it, but because of it. God desires us. In that desire, He seeks us for who we are in our entirety, flaws included. He accepts us because he desires us. can we accept each other with that kind of forever?
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Cor 13:7
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