Faith Filled Family Magazine March 2017 | Page 30

the same kind of unconditional love one to another . No matter the lifestyle of one , we are to love them as Jesus does . We are never to think ourselves to be anything more than anyone else , lest we fall beneath them all . When another person ’ s life reflects everything that we despise , we are to love them with the love of Jesus . When we find it hard to pray for those who we believe are unworthy of prayer , then we need to take our concerns to the Father . We need to ask Him not only to help us to understand His will , but also to give us the words to pray for that one . Jesus has been and always will be our intercessor , and I don ’ t believe that is simply for our own personal needs . He intercedes for us with all prayers that we may struggle with . He will teach us how to pray for those who we may view as unlovable . Will a person always repent and be saved ? No ! It will do us all good to realize that everyone that we pray for will not make it . Everyone doesn ’ t have the desire to be free and they will not repent of anything . This has no reflection on our prayer life either , because the truth is that if the love of Jesus can ’ t save them , we surely never will be able to . Does that mean we should stop praying when we see no change in them ? No , we must always pray with all love and supplication as with any other prayer .
WE ARE COMMANDED TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER
God ’ s Word gives us so many commands to love one another that there is no way to deny them . The world tries to justify this , despite and hatred toward some , but the Father gives us no justification of hatred toward sinners . We are to hate the sin itself , not the sinner .
John 13 : 34 – 35 : “ A new commandment I give unto you , that ye love one another ; as I have loved you , that ye also love one another . By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples , if ye have love one to another .”
We can not only see the power in this command , but also the purpose . God wants us to love one another so that those who do not know Him as their Savior might be drawn to Him by the love of His children . When the world sees the church as haters of the world , they see no hope in change . Many have stated that they can live as righteous as “ those hypocrites ” in the church . While this is a sad statement and a false philosophy , it is a true statement in many ways . The church must begin to operate in more love for the lost , giving them reason to want to experience Christ .
John 15:17 - “ These things I command you , that ye love one another .”
Romans 12:10 - “ Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love ; in honour preferring one another …”
Romans 13:8 – “ Owe no man anything but to love one another ; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law .”
Galatians 5:13 – “ For brethren , ye have been called unto liberty ; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh , but by love serve one another .”
Ephesians 4:2 – “ With all lowliness and meekness , with longsuffering , forbearing one another in love …”
1 Thessalonians 4:9 – “ But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you : for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another .”
These are just a few of the scriptures that are given to us concerning loving each other . We can no longer get away with using ones sin as an excuse .
Hebrews 10:24 – “ And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works …”
1 Peter 1:22 – “ Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren , see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently …” We go to church week after week and claim to have a pure heart , we stand in the altar and praise God as if we have a pure heart , and yet we fail to remember such scripture as this one . Have we truly purified our own hearts ? Are we obeying the truth through the Spirit ? Do we love each other intensely ? I pray that if we say that we do , that we actually do , and if we don ’ t , we begin to .
1 Peter 3:8 – “ Finally , be ye all of one mind , having compassion one of another , love as brethren be pitiful , be courteous …”
1 John 3:23 – “ And this is his