Belief Equals Love

Well, Father, it has already been an eventful day. I drove my routes. I’ve set up a dental appointment for tomorrow. I found my prescription sunglasses that fell out of my bus onto the highway – they are very damaged but not irreparable. I’ve got Sunday’s sermon underway and had lunch with Karen and Massey. May this time together bring forth what You need to proclaim Your glory! Amen.

1 John 3:11-24 (<<click here to read the passage)

And this is his command: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another. v23 NLT

Lord, as I pray and read through my Life Application Study Bible notes, I understand that, first of all, we must believe what You have said, that is very important but equally important is embracing who You are – You are the Son of God.

Believing “in the name” means that my goal is to pattern my life after Your life. And if I am doing that then I will abide by Your command and Your lifestyle to “love one another.”

It’s very much like a simple mathematical equation.

Believing Your words + believing You are God = loving one another

Living out my faith in You will always result in love. And that love has no exceptions. We cannot pick and choose – it is all-inclusive. In reading Your word, that is how You lived.

Thinking along those lines brings to mind a portion of a past sermon. In the days before Your crucifixion, You loved Judas. He wasn’t excluded. He wasn’t avoided. You didn’t withhold Yourself from him. In the upper room, You washed his feet just as You washed everyone else’s feet. You loved him. You repeatedly gave him opportunities to turn from the path he was headed down.

Could I have done the same? Could I willingly love someone that I knew was going to betray me? Could I treat with tenderness the individual that I knew was the catalyst for my death?

You are my example, in the flesh. You lived out Your love, withholding absolutely nothing. Lord, make me like You. May my love grow deeper and stronger as I spend time with You. Amen.

(May 5^th, 2017, Fri, 5:11 am)
May 22^nd, 2023, Mon, 1:02 pm