I have been reading through first John a lot lately and it has a lot of challenging verses about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It is a very black and white book. For example:1 John 4:20-21 (NIV)
20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
That is a hard thing to hear. It makes me look at my life and ask myself if there is anyone I hate. I say that I love God, but do I love my brothers and sisters? It is easy for me to tell people that I love God. They don’t know what my relationship with Him is like. They have no way of evaluating it. They can, however, see how I treat those around me. It reminds me of the story where the friends lower the man through the roof. Jesus says “your sins are forgiven” (Matt 9:2). This, as He points out, is easy to say. No one can verify if it is true, but He goes on to say “get up and walk” (vs 5) and they see something verifiable.
I tell people that I love God. That’s easy to say; I can even fool myself if I try. Do I demonstrate that I love my fellow humans?
Mark Wallace
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