Okay, I have an opinion and I express it saying “God told me this”. You have an opposite opinion and you claim the same divine revelation. How do we know who is telling the truth? Is anyone telling the truth?
This is important, because there are many competing accounts of how the earth was created, what ethical behavior looks like, and how we should treat enemies. If you sign up for the wrong one, you could go down a very dark path that doesn’t lead to heaven, but only to persecution for eternity.
One way that you can know if what this person says can be trusted is by comparing their beliefs about who Jesus is. If they claim He is anything other than God in human form, completely God and yet completely human…run. No matter how tantalizing their argument, it’s based on falsehood and will not lead you to Jesus.
In the following verses about living in love, and loving one another I saw something new today. Verse 17 says “as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.” (NLT). Loving others is something that we learn to do. Caring about what happens to someone else “grows” in us. The day we accept Christ as our Savior something changes, and we are adopted as sons and daughters…but that doesn’t imply that we have “arrived” and no longer need to grow. It really is just the beginning of a life-long process called discipleship.
Discipleship is all about obedience, and obedience is all about love. We obey because we love God, and we serve others because of a love for Christ, and a growing love for His people. Love is what is attractive about Christianity, not the service itself.
Loving others, friends and enemies alike, is the hallmark of the Christian faith,
In Love,
PR