However you do hear many Christians talk about, “Christian
Perfection” in different ways. But this
is not about “absolute perfection”
because only God is perfect. As long as
we live here on earth we humans (Christians included) will always sin, always! We will never be infallible. We will never be perfect or without fault, or
flaw or error.
To
be perfect as God is perfect is to love as God loves. To love like God is to go beyond loving our friends and neighbors and even our brothers
and sisters in Christ. Christian
Perfection calls us to love our enemies.
It calls us to be completely devoted to God; to love him with all our
heart, mind and soul; to grow in God’s grace and love and to live out that love
in our daily lives. This is how we walk
with Christ and this is what God means to be perfect as he is perfect. To be like our Father is to love like our
Father. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:44-45 I say,
love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45In that way, you will be acting as true
children of your Father in heaven. This is how you are to be
perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Our mission as God’s children is to show the God of Love to all people and to show God’s
Love for all people.
Children of God, let me share a few verses with you
from 1 John 4.
(v16) “God IS Love. Whoever lives in love
lives in God, and God in him.”
(v10) This is love: not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for
our sins. (v20) If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
(v21) The Lord has given us this
command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Brothers and sisters, if we truly are who we say we are;
if we indeed are “children of God” then we are “children of love” and “children that
love.” We are called in love to …
love all people in all circumstances.
This is NOT EASY
but this is what makes us different than the love found in this world. We love as our Father loves. We love as Christ taught us to love. We love
because God’s Holy Spirit of Love lives in us.
There is no fear of loss in God’s love. No one receives rank or status for having material
possessions in God’s love. God’s love is
not romantic. God’s love cannot be lost
in anger or in neglect or in forgetfulness.
God’s love does not get weaker with distance or time.
God’s love is an “agape
love.” This is not a human way of
loving but a divine way to love. Agape
Love is a love found only in
God and is only given to us from
God. God’s Love, his agape love is a love that is totally selfless. To love as God loves means to serve others
and act in love even if the act does not benefit us in any way. To love as
God loves is to love others even if that love is not returned. Agape love is to love and pray for others
even if they attack us.
In John 13:34-35 Jesus says “A new
command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love
one another. 35 By this all men will know that
you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Brothers and sisters, God loves us — all of us — no
matter how great our sins, no matter how broken our lives and spirits may be. The Lord seeks out and loves
his lost sheep; those who
tend to wander away; those who don’t love him back, those who mock him and even
those who do even not know him.
God’s love - His Mercy - His forgiveness is greater
than our sins. If we truly are the
children of the loving God, if we truly walk in his image and reflect his love
to the world, then our souls and hearts will be filled with his mercy and
forgiveness. It will flow from our
hearts into the world and in loving devotion to our Father we will love our
neighbor as ourselves no matter how lost or broken or unreasonable or irritating
they may be.
I want to tell you about a 4 minute You Tube video I saw. It was produced by Centerville Community
Church in Ohio, USA. One evening the members
of the church went into the streets of the Business District of Dayton, Ohio to
asked people on the street one question: “If
you could ask God one question what would it be?” One
woman’s answer changed my life. The
interviewer asked her, “If you could ask God one question what would it
be?” Without hesitation she responded,
“Why don’t you love me?” The interviewer
was taken back and said to her, “you know God loves your right.” She looked back with blank eyes and a solemn
face, shaking her head she said, “no, no I don’t” and then turned walked away
into night.
John Wesley said, "I look upon
all the world as my parish." As
children of love we have been commanded to go into the world and bring all
people the good news of salvation. The Good
News is that God loves us and wants us back.
Children of love, tell all who will listen that our good shepherd, Jesus stepped down from
his throne of glory to sacrifice himself for his sheep and that he still seeks
them. Tell them that Jesus is the only way back to the loving arms of our
Father. Tell them God’s love story. Tell them that GOD LOVES THEM not because
they have earned his love or deserve his love but because of who he is and what
he has done through Jesus Christ. Tell
them we know we are saved because the Most High God calls himself our Father
and calls us his children. He is faithful
and has promised us that he will come get us.
Tell them that is the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Precious children of God, go out into all
the world show them agape love; God’s love so that they will know that
all things good or bad in this world will pass away but as 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells us, “God’s Love Never Fails.” God’s love is eternal it
never stops no matter what! God loved us
before we were born, he loves us now and he will love us through all eternity.
Mother
Teresa said, “Spread the love of God through your life but only
use words when necessary.”
Children of God! Put your love and faith into action!
May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen!
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