Psalms 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Jesus said, This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (John 15:12) Jesus sacrificed his life, not only for his friends, but for the whole world. The world hated him without a cause. He was spat on, he had stripes upon his back. He was mocked. He was crucified. And what did Jesus do to those that did such evil to him? He forgave them. He made excuses for them. He said they did not know what they were doing. Jesus endured all this because he loves us. Jesus said, love one another as I have loved you. If someone insults us, ignores us, talks behind our back, falsely accuses us, hates us, makes fun of us, tricks us, cheats us, steals from us, lies about us, can we say, “I forgive them”. Can we go a step beyond this and say, “Lord don’t charge them with this sin”, as Stephen prayed when he was being martyred? We can find great peace when we keep Jesus’ commandment to love: we find peace with our self, peace with human relationships, and peace with God in covenant relationship. When we forgive others, we feel a release within our self. Even sickness in our body can wind up being released when we forgive those that have hurt us. When we forgive others we have peace with God and maintain his forgiveness for our sins. If we do not forgive those that have sinned against us, we are out of covenant with God. We have been forgiven of sin, so we are expected to forgive. (See: Matthew 18:23-35) 1John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Light is a symbol of God’s love and mercy. If we are loving and merciful as Jesus is loving and merciful, we have fellowship one with another, and all of our sins are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. 1John 4:21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 1John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 1John 3:24 ¶And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. Because Jesus has given us his Spirit, we have power to keep from stumbling. His Sprit gives us peace that is incomprehensible. We have patience with others that we would not have without his Spirit. There is an old song speaking of the Holy Ghost, “…makes you love everybody.” After a church service where the Holy Ghost has moved and everyone is full of God’s Spirit, everybody loves everybody. No one remembers any grudges. The place is full of God’s love, joy, peace…all the fruit of the Spirit. When we love one another as Christ loved us, we have great peace: nothing can make us stumble.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 10:02:20 +0000
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