The greatest command comes from Jesus.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35
So, if we are all supposed to love one another, why are we still tearing each other down? We are not just meant to love the people who go to the same church, same denomination, same ethnicity, or follow the same football team. It doesn’t matter the color of our skin or the way we dress. Jesus took care of all of that when He arose. He tore the veil that separated us from God.
If the Lordship of Jesus Christ is not greater than any difference you have with others – be it political, racial, economic, language, geography or whatever, then you have not fully understood what it means to be under the Lordship of Jesus.
So if we say we are a Christian or that we believe in Jesus, we have to believe it all. If we believe in Him we must believe his commands. We cannot hold onto old hostility of any kind! We are a part of the body of Christ and must love everyone. The love we have for each other is going to be directly correlated to our grasp of how much Christ loves us.
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
How do I pull this loving my neighbor thing off? It all comes from the Holy Spirit who is the helper that Jesus left for us when He ascended into heaven. Pray that the Holy Spirit strengthens our inner being with power.
The take-aways from this sermon:
- Loving our neighbor is a matter of will…
- Will this help us love our neighbor?
- Will this help us follow Jesus?
- Will this bear witness to the fruits of the Holy Spirit?
- Will my emotions be immersed in love?
- We have mastered the art of tearing down…but nobody seems to know how to put things back together.
- Meanwhile, Jesus has never stopped building HIs church.
- Not ours. His church
- Deconstruct anything contrary to Jesus in your life.
- Then rebuild with Christ as the cornerstone.
The blog posts that I write as a take-away from our weekly sermons come from our pastor, Jon Porter. His sermons are relevant to today’s world and are based on the Word. Milan Christian Church is a small church located in Milan, IN. It’s a church family that is loving and welcomes people from all walks of life.
You can checkout our website for more info or listen to the podcast for recordings of Jon’s sermons.
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In Faith,
Pam
Where God Leads 