Jesus said to His disciples that the world would know we are His by how we love one another. As I look at the state of the Church, as I look at the state of my nation, and the state of the world, I see only division. I’m not talking about uniting with people who claim they follow Christ, but go against the Scriptures. But every believer in Spirit and Truth is part of the “Big C” Church. We have grown territorial. Most of what we disagree on is a matter of perspective, not the sound doctrine of Scripture, and we no longer go about the business of the Gospel, we fight for territory.
We cannot be united, Church, if we are not all in for the glory of God. And, we cannot realize the Glory of God unless we embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ: that we are sinners, hopelessly lost in sin, DEAD in our sins, deserving of God’s judgement and wrath for our rebellion. That Jesus, though being fully God, put on human flesh, and lived among us, perfectly according to all God’s standards, and that He offered His own life to pay the penalty for our sin. We should be united in that we know He was buried, but, of his own accord, rose from the grave three days later, conquering Death. All of Scripture points to this! And being born again and following Christ Jesus is the only way to be saved!
Loved ones, the world is corrupt, and holds nothing for us. It is not our home. Let us stop living our lives as if this is all there is. Let us love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, let us be the “big C” Church, and love one another, working together for the Kingdom of Christ, standing upon His word, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Let us love one another, for love is from God.
1 John 4
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
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.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
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