Loving Others

GUEST BLOGGER:  COREY SMILEY, LOCAL MISSIONS COORDINATOR

We have been saved, we have been shown compassion.  God has worked and He has moved greatly. He has done a work no one else can do. Jesus Christ died on our behalf to allow us to have a relationship with God. How does this affect the way we live?

For a long time serving for me was a hindrance to my day. I saw it as taking up my time, I thought I could be doing better things such as spending time with my friends, going to bible studies, listening to sermon after sermon after sermon. I saw these things as more important than loving the less privileged, the less fortunate, the broken, the abused, the hurting, and most importantly the spiritually dead. I thought that I need to get to a certain point spiritually, then I could love others. Recently though God has been showing me my sinfulness in thinking this way. He has been revealing to me that my love for others, even the ones who are totally different than me, is a fruit that I should be showing if I am truly elect. In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul writes to us (22 )But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

If I am one of the elect, then these fruits should all be evident in my life.

In your life are you seeing this fruit?
If you are seeing this fruit, who is it around? Is it around only your Christian friends, or are you showing these to non-Christians, or people that are different from you?
If you cannot see this fruit, then you may need to examine yourself.

What I am trying to get across in this blog post is that true Christians are not only the ones who read and listen to Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, or first, second, and third john, those three being John Calvin, John Macarthur, and John Piper.

If we have been saved from an eternity in hell.
How should that affect the way we live?
How should it affect how we care for others?

Let me get the point across; just doing good things is not sufficient.  If you are helping someone’s physical needs and not telling them of their greatest need, which is Jesus, then you do not love them.
Calvinists, get off your iPod, get away from your commentaries for a time.
Go love people, go serve them, go preach the Gospel.  There will always be time for study.

Here are two possible reasons (among others) why you would not tell someone about Jesus.
1) You don’t believe eternity is real, and that people will really  go to hell.
2) You are selfish and would rather not be put in an awkward situation.

GUYS, GO LOVE PEOPLE. GO LOVE PEOPLE.
I am so excited of the possibilities of how big of an influence we can have in Rock Hill, SC and the world.
Lets go out and love.

In closing, I ask that you read God’s word and meditate on it and examine your heart in light of these verses and how well you love others.
James 2.