Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

SO Loved!

 

Rom 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

 

Three Rules to live By

Here we have a threefold statement that should be the guiding principles of all of our lives.  The natural (unsaved) person is not likely to do this, the carnal or immature Christian may have some trouble with this, but the spiritual Christian should be exhibiting the desire to love without play acting, to abhor what is evil, and to cling to what is good. (See 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3.)

 

What is Love?

The Bible tells us that God is love.  We can only understand love when we understand the Lord Jesus Christ who has revealed God to us in a very practical way.  The best example of love is found in John 3:16:  For God SO LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  Notice the emphasis on that word love.  God SO LOVED.  This is something that you or I could not or would not normally do naturally.  We love our families, and we love those who are culturally like us. But most of us do not really love those that we perceive as being "different."   But God loved sinners of all colors and kinds and backgrounds.  He accepted Non-Jews (Gentiles) and the hated Samaritans.  Sometimes we sing:  "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow black and white, they are precious in His sight.  Jesus loves the children of the world."  And as near as I can tell and read, He loves these children when they grow up as well.  As Christians, do we love them? 

 

What is the Evil that we are to Abhor?

Evil comes from the evil one who is our adversary.  The Lord tells us that the Devil was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it (John 8:44).  So while there are many moral evils, hopefully we can agree that lying and murder are right at the top because they are involved in so many other aspects of immoral behavior.  John tells us that hate and murder are the same.  In 1John 3:15, John says, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."  John goes on to say in 1John 4:20, "If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?"  In other words, one who hates his brother is simply not a Christian. 

 

Now I know that some theologians with a desire to justify their attitudes toward certain segments of our society are going to ask, "Who is my brother?  Is that another Christian?  Or is that a blood brother?  Or is that talking generically about everyone who has been born into this world?"  I think that John was thinking that brother went beyond Jewish brother and Christian brother and blood brother since He was the one who recorded the words that God SO LOVED the WORLD that He gave HIs only begotten Son. 

 

Yes we need to abhor or hate evil but we shouldn’t abhor or hate other people that God created in his own image.  And we should tell the truth.  When we say we love someone and our actions speak otherwise, we are lying.  And that hurts.

 

What is Good in this World

Mark 10:18 we have the record of a young ruler who thought he was pretty good coming to the Lord and calling Him good.  “So Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good?  No one is good but One, that is, God.’" This young ruler called the Lord good but He didn’t think He was God.  The Lord said that there is only one Who is good and that is God.  So if we want to cling to what is good, we have to cling to God and the first step in doing that is to believe Him when He says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  That will give us a desire to be like Christ and to abhor what is evil and to cling to what is good.  Actually, most of us know without asking whether something is good or evil.  God gave us consciences to help us with knowing good and evil.

 

So if we want to show to the world that the Lord has the answer to the divisions and hate in our society. let us ask ourselves, “Are part of the problem or part of the solution?”  If God SO LOVED the world, are we doing the same?

 

Bruce Collins

 

Meditation for the week of August 20, 2017

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