My Daily Pause

…even sinners love those who love them. – Luke 6:32

Today when you attend worship, say hello to someone you’ve never spoken to. Try to step outside your comfort zone for a little while.

It’s good practice for acting like a Christian among those in the world. Jesus expects his disciples to demonstrate a quality of love, helpfulness, and compassion that exceeds everything that is above and beyond what people tend to do.

When you have mastered this among your fellow church folks, and are able to avoid “fellowship” with only selected friends, you are ready to show worldly people a Christ-like love for all.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance Gal 5:22-23

Love Demonstrated Through Action

I saved the best for last in this series. Love is the first item in the fruit of the Spirit. Love is the last item in Peter’s list of Christian graces (2 Peter 1:5-7) Whether it’s first or last in the list, we understand that it takes love to have the other attributes. Look at it again and we see that having the other attributes makes us more loving. This is how our spirituality grows and sustains itself.

That spirituality makes something very special manifest in our lives toward the father in heaven. The greatest command is to love God with all our hearts and our souls and our minds. When Jesus called this the greatest commandment in Matthew 5:37, he said the second one was just like it – Love your neighbor as much as yourself .(Matthew 5:39) That means to love your neighbor is loving God!

When the Agape type of love is mentioned in scripture is it associated with activity and service. God demonstrated it through the gift of his only son. (John 3:16) A couple of ways we can respond to that is by:

• keeping His commandments John 15:10
• keeping it sincere Romans 12:9
• serving others Gal 5:13-14

Jesus said that the only way we can be identified with Him is to have this love for one another. (John 13:35) He will recognize us when we have the fruit of love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, self-control, longsuffering, and gentleness.

Daily Bible reading for July 18

Ecclesiastes 11:1-8
Joshua 20
Jeremiah 11:18-12:17
Matthew 26:1-29

Jesus spent a lot of time breaking down how to live a life pleasing to God to its simplest term. If we love God with everything our heart can give, keeping His commandments will be the easy part. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is just an extension of loving God and with practice becomes a joyful lifestyle. (Luke 10:25-42)

¹⁷ Don’t be happy when your enemy is defeated;
don’t be glad when he is overwhelmed.
¹⁸ The Lord will notice and be displeased.
He may not be angry with them anymore. – Proverbs 23 NCV

This Proverb doesn’t allow the wicked and sinners a free pass if His followers celebrate their failures, but it is a clear warning to stay composed. The short comings of His people are more of a concern to Him than the actions of the lost.

Jesus said to “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Matthew 5:44) What better way to win over those that are against God than to display His Qualities in all situations.