Do you prefer the light or the dark? Do you want to be in the right or wrong? Do you desire love or hate? Do you adhere to your desires or chase after someone else’s? Do you adhere to your advice to others or do the very thing you complain about?
I dare say most of us prefer to be in the light, we want to be right, and we desire love. Yet, I also see plenty of evidence of our chasing after other people’s desires and failing to adhere to our own advice. We do the very thing we complain about someone else doing. The Apostle Paul would call all of us hypocrites.
Read today’s passage. See the Apostle John state that hating a brother or sister in Christ causes us to live in darkness. In other words, we have fallen prey to Satan’s schemes. We have allowed the world to trick us into thinking it is alright to hate one another, even if over the simplest disagreement.
John says to live in the light we must love our brothers and sisters. Notice he did not put any qualifications on loving them. In other words, he didn’t say, “love them as long as you agree with them.” Or, “love them as long as they do what you prefer.” Or, “love them when they are behaving properly.”
We are not merely called to love one another, we are commanded to love one another by Jesus (Matthew 19:19, 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27). In fact, Jesus also states that if we love only those who love us, there is no reward for us (Matthew 5:46). Though that may sound harsh, it is nothing Jesus did not do Himself. He has set the bar high with His own love.
I pray we all love our brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray we choose to follow Jesus’ example. I pray each one of us choose to live up to expectations and follow Jesus’ command to love. Love one another. Love as Jesus loves. Follow His example. Love the unlovable. Show God’s love to everyone.
1 John 2:9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
Marty Pressey 