Commanded to Love


There are many cliches referring to love. Love is a many splendid thing. What's love got to do with it? If loving you is wrong I don't want to be right. These are all phrases from love songs, and many have adapted them as their own way of thinking. The problem with this is that the songs above are not referring to God's love, which is the love we are commanded to love with.

The Bible has much to say about love, which I am not even going to attempt to put in this blog. The servers are not big enough! Therefore, for the sake of this devotion, I will only focus on a few.

First, let's look at Mark 12:27-31 which says, "Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these.'”

This clearly shows us that love is not a suggestion but a commandment. Now this gets a little tricky, especially when you talk about "loving your neighbor as yourself." What if I don't like my neighbor? As a matter of fact, I don't like my neighbor and the more I think about it, there are a few people at my church that I don't like either! Well, this may be true, BUT the commandment still stands. If you call yourself a Christian you are commanded to love.

Let's look at this a little further. Not only are we commanded to love our neighbor, of whom we may not even like, we are are commanded to love our enemy. Matthew 5:43-48 says, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, 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; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

What? Love my enemy? Yes, love your enemy and in case you were wondering, your enemy is anybody that you don't like. Now I know that this may be a bit much to take in especially since you have an extensive list of enemies. Therefore I will leave you with just a few more thoughts to meditate on.

The commandment to love is not some cruel punishment that the Lord has given to punish you. It is to awaken your heart to the reality that God loves you and has put His love in your heart through the Holy Spirit. Our loving Heavenly Father wants to share His love for others through us and this can only be done if we love like He loves. So, as you are going throughout this week, ask the Lord to give you a revelation of His love so that you can share it with others. Remember, if He commanded us to love like Him, then we can love like Him.

Love, peace and blessings,

Dr. Sheila

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 28, 2013 at 6:07 AM

    Dr. Sheila, thank you for these words this morning. I was dealing with some folks, that because they didn't like me and talked about me, I had refused to give the time of day. I went straight to the book and to God for help. I've forgiven these people and would even speak to them, but they continue to smile in my face, hold a conversation, and ten minutes later talk junk. I proceed to still talk to them and even sincerely invite them to DCC. They smile and I say, "It doesn't matter if you don't like me, I'm obeying my Father and I love you and I pray that someday you'll see that." Dr. Sheila, it took me minute to get there with these ladies, but I know must be obedient to the King. Thank u again. Bless you and yhe family!

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