1 John 4:20-21

1 John 4:20-21 – “… for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen … whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

No one is surrounded with hypocrisy more than the lukewarm Christian. This is evident when we imagine the life that the Gospel tells us to live versus the life that we are the most comfortable living. However, the Christian that feels “on fire for God” can fight with hypocrisy all the same. Any contempt that we hold for those we know or those we don’t has a way of getting between us and the person we wish to be. Disdain or disgust that is rooted in Christian beliefs is especially sly (and illogical).

Followers of Christ that are truly “on fire for God” should not use that fire with the sole intention to burn others. Instead, we should use that fire as a light to display the grace of God – and what a Grace it is! Don’t get it twisted – it’s very important to stand firm in our belief of God’s teachings, but allowing ourselves to hold hatred toward others because of those beliefs is contradictory to the beliefs themselves.

Being true to the Lord is not about loving others because they are similar to us, it’s about loving others because God loved them first. To refuse love toward our brothers and sisters is to refuse the grace that God has given us to share.

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