May the mumbling commence!
No imitation is accepted in Christian circles. Only real love will do. So, what is real love? Read from Romans chapter twelve:
Let us have no imitation Christian love. Let us have a genuine break with evil and a real devotion to good.
Let us have real warm affection for one another as between brothers, and a willingness to let the other man have the credit.
Let us not allow slackness to spoil our work and let us keep the fires of the spirit burning, as we do our work for God.
Base your happiness on your hope in Christ. When trials come endure them patiently, steadfastly maintain the habit of prayer.
Give freely to fellow-Christians in want, never grudging a meal or a bed to those who need them.
And as for those who try to make your life a misery, bless them. Don't curse, bless.
Share the happiness of those who are happy, the sorrow of those who are sad.
Live in harmony with each other. Don't become snobbish but take a real interest in ordinary people. Don't become set in your own opinions.
Don't pay back a bad turn by a bad turn, to anyone. Don't say "it doesn't matter what people think", but see that your public behavior is above criticism.
As far as your responsibility goes, live at peace with everyone.
Never take vengeance into your own hands, my dear friends: stand back and let God punish if he will. For it is written: 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay'.
And these are God's words:
'Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him;
if he thirsts, give him a drink;
for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head'.
Don't allow yourself to be overpowered with evil. Take the offensive – overpower evil by good! (Verses 9-21)
Here is a list of what real Christian love is. Christian love is defined both by what it is and what it is NOT. What Christian love is highlighted in green. And what Christian love is NOT is highlighted in dark red.
Christian love calls us to a genuine break with evil in order that we may become devoted to good. Christian love creates a warm familial affection for each other. It means that it matter much less who gets the credit for some good work than that good work gets done.
Christian love ignites the fires of the Holy Spirit that cleanses us so that we may serve God. Christian love finds both happiness and hope in Christ alone. When hard times come (and they will), Christian love leads us to endure patiently through habitual prayer. Prayer that begins in good times is the foundation for prayer in hard times.
Christian love inspires us to give freely to those people in need. It means sharing happiness with others to increase the joy and sharing sorrow to halve the grief.
Christian love guides us to live in harmony with one another. Note that the Scripture says harmony and not unison. It is okay to be different than one another – our differences can become our strengths and beauty with the power of Christian love. That is why we take an interest in all people from extraordinary to ordinary.
Christian love guides us to live a life above criticism. Christian love calls us to live in peace with everyone – as far as we are able to control. Christian love takes initiative to overpower evil with good.
There is no room in Christian love for slackness in attitude. There is no room in Christian love for grudges or snobbery. There is no room for being set in our opinions. (We need to be open to hearing other viewpoints and growing in our opinions.) Christian love does not return evil for evil. To return evil for evil is to be overpowered by it. Christian love does not regard others’ opinions as irrelevant. There is no room in Christian love for vengeance. (Christian love trusts God to set things right.)
There is a high cost for real Christian love. But it is worth every effort and every possession we think we have. A substitute is not acceptable.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
No comments:
Post a Comment