Transformation through God's Word

Loving one another. It's really the hardest thing to do isn't it? Well, it is for me. It's much easier to be mad at someone than to love them when they have hurt me. It is much easier to let the hurt turn to anger. It is much easier to let that anger grow, even to cultivate it and feel righteous about it.

Not only are we not commanded but also the Bible does not allow us to get our way, to get even, or to justify our actions. But it's much easier to do that than to love one another.

1 John 3: 11-24 talks about

1. We should love one another, don't be like Cain who murdered his brother
   
   (and why did he murder him? it was because he was hurt, and his hurt turned to anger and he let it fester and grow. His brother was not even the one who hurt him when you think about it. God accepted Able's gift as pure, and Cain's as not. In their case the problem was sourced in Cain, no one else. It was his greed that got him into trouble. Then when he didn't get what he wanted, he blamed it on someone else and then even murdered him.)
   
   
2. what is love? that Jesus laid down his life for us, and therefore we should do that for others.
   
   (he's not talking about physical dying, but putting aside our wants & desires to help others who need us. Oh, and he makes it very clear that if we hold on to the blessings God has given us and not give it away as well to those around us who need it, then we are in violation of not loving. It says that if we don't do that, we don't have God's love in us. That's pretty sharp isn't it?)
   
   he ends this with a reminder that its like this: do not love in word or talk but in deed or action.
   
   
3. our conscious gets us when we don't follow this
   
   (he says that if we are believers, then our own heart condems us when we don't follow this, but God is stronger than our conscious and he knows everything already. God knows before we do what our actions will be.)
   
   
4. whoever does what God says (the stuff above) belongs to God, and God is part of them, and we know that how? by the holy spirit in our lives
   
   (the conscious, the guider, etc)