Loving Others

Philippians 1:15-18 (NASB)

“15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice”

Something I learned today came from these verses above: Often times, I have found myself trying to separate myself from certain “denominations” of the church. It is usually because I differ from certain beliefs they may have, or certain traditions, or even their past. Something I cannot escape is the fact that I am in Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:12-14), and we are all connected in, and through, Christ.

I think the main thing I got out of these verses is the fact that even if there are different reasons, beliefs, traditions, or others, as long as Christ is preached, there is only glory for God, something that we can rejoice in. God can use very different and interesting methods or reaching people (Numbers 22:21-35), and we may not be able to see the whole picture.

The main thing God has been teaching me lately is to just love people. Doing a quick search on the word “love” in the NASB translation of the Bible on youversion, it comes up with 654 separate verses. I am sure there are much more, but the point is, God has a lot to say about love. Romans 13:9 says: “For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to the lawyer in Matthew 22:35-40: “35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”37 And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’38 This is the great and foremost commandment.39 The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Basically speaking, if we love God (with all of our heart, soul, and mind), we will be able to love our neighbors as ourselves. Loving God, and others, is something that has been made easy for all believers. 1 John 4:19 says” We love Him, because He first loved us.”, and continues in verse 20-21 explaining the command of God to love our brothers in Christ, and that we can love them because we have seen God, and if we do not love them, we have not seen God, and if we love God, we will naturally love our brothers in Christ. So, if we love God first, then we can love others, and are capable to do this all because of what Christ did on the cross, enabling us to do so, because God is love. 1 John 4:8-10 says: ” 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Because God is in us, and God is love, we are able to manifest love that we do not have without Christ in us.

All this to say that we need to love each other, not just because God commands us to, but because He has shown us how to love others by demonstration, and He has empowered us to do so. We, as the body of Christ, need to stop trying to divide ourselves (in Christ, and the body of Christ), and see that the gospel (God’s love story to us) is preached. When the world sees that we are in complete unison, they can see the completeness of God. They can see the love of God. They can see God. God’s love for His people is stronger, and we need to see past petty differences in ourselves and others. The question we need to ask is if they are preaching the gospel, and is it the gospel as spelled out in scripture. The gospel is very simple in itself, and all of us know what the basics of it are: Christ loves us, and took our place for the payment of our sins, so that we can have a relationship with Him. He provided a way to escape judgment, and it is something that can only be received, not earned, since the payment has already been made for all of mankind. Anything contrary to Christ loving people to the point of providing salvation for free (as He already overpaid the amount for us) is a lie. No need to get caught up in semantics. Just God’s love for people and us loving others as God loves them. We already have the mind of Christ: 1 Corinthians 2:16: “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.”, and have full access to His knowledge. I heard a story of a 6-year-old at Bethel Church that told the following (paraphrased): She heard a voice call her name in the night. She said “If this is the devil, stop talking, and if this is God, please continue.” The voice stopped.

My point is that 1) we have full access to the knowledge of God, and 2) that if God wants us to correct us on something, He will, as long as we listen, and test the spirits behind it (1 John 4:1-3: “1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God;”), and 3) that we do not need to argue amongst each other outside of God’s love, and instead we need to focus on empowering each other to preach the gospel. Finally 4) We need to stop seeing the body of Christ as separate. We all have different functions, but we are one.