Beloved, let us love one another.

First, read this blog post. I'll be here when you get back.


Did you read it? If not, go back and read it. It is worth it I promise.

Last semester, the Lord began stirring my heart. He began to open my eyes to physical and spiritual need. The world is full of it, and my selfish heart had been looking the other way. Africa, in particular, was a place that I felt burdened for and my mentor, knowing this, told me to read through the Kisses for Katie blog. So, one night I decided to check it out. It was just me and the Lord in my apartment that night, and He used this post to reveal deep-seated things in my heart that didn't look like Him.

It is times like these where the Lord chooses to reveal Himself and His heart to me in such a deep and overwhelming way that all I can do is be still, worship and most of all, repent. It is during these times that He convicts me in a painfully loving way of the sin that exists in my wicked heart. Do I look on others with the compassion and love of Jesus? Do I give of my treasures, time and myself to the least of these? Do I really count the cost? He is a Perfect Father--a Good Dad. Because of the love and mercy that I don't deserve, I am one of His kids. And because His love is perfect, He is determined to rid me of sin that leads to destruction and make me more like His Son.

The God of the universe loved me and pursued me when I was unlovable.

"For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
2 Corinthians 4:6


I love the way John explains it.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:7-12

Literally, "Because you are loved by God and you know what love is, love others."

I can only truly love others when I am fully and completely satisfied by His real, perfect love for me displayed in His Son.

Christians, if we truly have fallen in love with this perfect God who loved us first even when we cared nothing for Him, shouldn't our lives look like it? Shouldn't we love the things that He loves, hate the things that He hates, and hurt for and minister to a world that is lost and dying?