Bible Studies
People are ridiculed for loving God and showing it. In the world men are praised for one night stands, women are praised for wearing low cut shirts and short shorts, being labeled “sexy”.
My friends it ought not to be this way, but it is. We are warned in 2 Timothy 3:12 that all of us as Christians will be persecuted, we should expect it. Teens and adults alike deal with it everyday! When speaking on the subject of homosexuality being a sin based on a question posed to them, a young teen was called a “hateful b****” and a “religious freak”. when proclaiming the name of Jesus, adults have been mocked, labeled as an idiot, and sometimes even killed. But what should this do to us? Should we even be affected? What are we to do in this world that hates the very Savior who loved it enough to die for it?
As in many cases, the answer is easily stated, but difficult to put into action. We are to LOVE them. that’s right, love them. The world often times says “why should I love the people who are my enemies?” or the world (and sadly sometimes Christians as myself have fallen into this trap) use the excuse, “but he/she hurt me! Why should I love them!? Its so hard!”
You see, the thing is, the bible tells us to be like Jesus, to imitate him, and strive to be like him! W.W. J. D., what would Jesus do? Well, Jesus would and does love everyone! That’s what he would do! When the people yelled at him, accused him of things he did not do, did he curse at them? Fight them? Call them names? Nope. He loved them, loved them enough to die so that they, as well as us, could receive a gift we don’t deserve. He loved the very men who pounded the nails into his hands and feet. He loved the men who yelled, “Crucify him!”, the men who took whips to his back, a sword to his side, and shoved a crown of thorns into his brow. He loved all of them!
Why is it that us as Christians claim we can’t love someone because they “hurt” us? Why are we unforgiving of things that don’t even matter in our spiritual track to be with God in eternity? Why do we hate or dislike anyone? Because love is not easy. It may be easy to love God or love your family, but God wants us to love everyone?? Even those who hate us?? Yep, he does! God said that a life lived following him would be worth it, but he never said it would be easy. If our Christian life was easy, then would we truly be thankful for the forgiveness God gives us?
So, how do we love everyone? Even those who hurt us? Well it needs to start with a basic foundation of understanding of the love Jesus showed in his time here on earth as well as his time in heaven. By studying his examples of Love, we can understand what he expects from us. (Life of Jesus is recorded in the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the first Chapter of Acts is His ascension into heaven)
Love must also have an unselfish base of honor. Honor for even those who you think don’t deserve it. To build honor, start small. Honor your parents and family first then honor your own body. Remember, your body is a temple of God! (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Then learn to honor those around you. With this, you will soon find yourself on your way to Love.
Another foundation of love is putting others before yourself. I have come to know and love the saying, “I am 3rd”. God is first, others are second, and I am third. This means that sometimes we might need to give of our time and money in order to place others above ourselves. We must keep close watch on our intentions and make sure that we are not putting ourselves before others or even before God!
Something to keep in mind when trying to love someone is that, no one but Jesus is perfect! All men have sinned and fall! (Romans 3:23). Everyone makes mistakes, and mistakes are never a reason not to extend love to someone. What if God stopped loving us when we sinned because we hurt him? Its something to think about.
An absolute necessity for attaining the ability to love everyone is forgiveness. Often times when people wrong us or hurt us, we are bitter and sometimes hold a grudge. It is in these cases that without forgiveness, there can be no love. Why is that? Well, if we hold a sin against someone because we haven’t forgiven them, that sin turns into a label we use for them. You hear many times sayings like this, “I’m not socializing with them because they lied to me.” that is a great example. When we hold someone’s sins against them, those are the first thoughts that come to our head when we see them when instead we should be thinking of love.
We also need to remember that God didn’t say how long we had to forgive someone. Certainly it needs to be in our lifetime but God didn’t say we only had a day, or a week, or a year, he just said we need to forgive. That doesn’t mean that we hold it off to the last possible moment, remember WWJD? I don’t think Jesus would want us to do that. It is understood that people are different and might take different amounts of time to forgive. What we all need to do is the moment someone sins against us we need to stop what were doing and pray. Pray for God to give you strength. Pray for him to help you forgive this person. And defiantly, without a doubt, pray for the person who wronged you. Then, as soon as you say your, “Amen”, start working on forgiveness.
In combining all of these characteristics and actions, you will find it much easier to love even your greatest of enemies, even those who persecute you.
In close, always remember this; if people are persecuting you for proclaiming Jesus, your doing your job! It may not seem like any good could ever come from it, but there is good hidden deep inside! In Matthew 5:10-12, the bible states that persecution is a blessing! You see, if someone is persecution you for proclaiming Jesus, its because they see Him in your life! So, serve God rather than men and remember, God wants us to love, to love EVERYONE! So lets do it and change the world!
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