Reflect God’s Love
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
“God is Love,” and we see from the Word that the Father and Son show love to everyone, however God’s perfect love comes with perfect hate for sin. We have God’s love in our hearts and we continually fight sin because we are not perfect. If we live in the image of God, we will reflect God’s love to everyone, even to people who deny the Truth.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, (Philippians 2:3) If we show God’s love, we will always see others above self, because how can we bring God’s love to people if we look down at them? We look at people and we can see them walking with Christ. That’s how Jesus saw Peter, the person he would become, not the person he was when he first met Jesus.
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew 5:44) We are told to love our enemies, but we hate the sin they do. We love our enemies but we hate the deception and lies they believe that comes from Satan. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12) Our hate goes toward sin that Satan uses to separate people from God. Our love goes to people and our hate goes toward sin.
It’s important we show love and kindness to everyone because there is no room in our hearts for hate, because we can’t have both God’s love for everyone in our hearts and have Satan’s hate in our hearts, except hate for sin. One drop of hate in our hearts makes love look muddy, while our hatred of sin makes the love in our hearts glow brightly.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) We show our love by showing, joy, peace, forbearance or patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We need all the fruit of the Spirit if we are to reflect God’s love.
Today show love by reflecting the fruit of the Spirit. And pray that God continuous to fill your heart with his love as you minister to people.
Pray: Lord guide me in the Spirit and fill my heart with your love; and cast out any hate I have except hate for sin. In Jesus name, Amen