ALL WE NEED IS LOVE

AS THE WORLD HATES, WE SHALL SHOW LOVE

If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you John 15:18-19

We live in turbulent times, troubled times, challenging times to say the very least. The news is filled with stories of violent deaths, broken families, financial tragedies, everything pointing to the erosion of our society as we know it. So much hatred in the world from the most obvious such as racism and genocide, to the subtleties of 'off color' humor, or distasteful jokes. All of these actions contribute to the demise of our human race.

For Christians, it seems as if the microscope of scrutiny is placed over us as soon as we announce our faith. Our lives did not get easier once we came to the Lord, it became more apparent that we were going to have to make some tough decisions along the path we had chosen to follow. Despite all of the murmurings, all of the insults, the insinuations, we still have to honor our Lord and Savior and follow his commands.

This is my command: Love each other John 15:17

There is no separation on who we can love; it doesn't say only 'our friends', only 'Christians', only 'our good neighbors', only 'the people we like'. No, it says 'love each other'. Maybe that is why we have prayer, so we can pray to God to give us the strength to love on those that we cannot love, for whatever reason.

Until we can begin to truly love everyone, we are truly being hypocritical. As Jesse Duplantis says, 'the Lord says we have to love everyone, but we don't have to like'em...' I can appreciate that. Let us all hope and pray that we are filled with the same compassion that Jesus had for us, for we were and still are all sinners. He paid the price on the cross for all of us, and we can never repay him.

But then again, maybe if were to follow his commandments, his instructions, his laws...that would be a greater demonstration of our love for Him, than to just say, 'I love Jesus'. To love me is to obey me He said....maybe we should do more of that.

Blessings to all so we may continue to bless others....Aloha ke Akua