Called To Love

D. Demonstrated in forgiving

1. Paul gives a strong warning in Galatians 5:14-15 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!”

2. A rattlesnake, if cornered, will sometimes become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is—a biting of oneself. We think that we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves. – E. Stanley Jones, Reader’s Digest, December 1981

3. Hebrews 12:14-15 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.”

4. When the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they could not find a word in their language for forgiveness, so they had to compound one. This turned out to be: Issumagijoujungnainermik. It is a formidable-looking assembly of letters, but an expression that has a beautiful connotation for those who understand it. It means: “Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.” - Minister’s Research Service

5. Ephesians 4:32 “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.”

6. A professed believer who is down on fellow Christians does not love according to God’s standard of loving. When he hates, despises or is bitter toward another brother or sister in Christ, he mentally commits murder. A person controlled by the Holy Spirit will manifest the fruit of love and forgiveness. Look at your life. If you hate someone, if you are bitter toward them, if you resent them, you are definitely 100% carnal. When we allow sin to control us we appear no different than the non-Christian. We may make respectable noises. We may look pious or spiritual but we are out of fellowship. We might give generously and witness continuously but we are out of fellowship. We are no different from the non-Christian except that we possess eternal life. Absence of love for fellow Christians is an indication of absence of fellowship with God. A loveless believer cannot commune with God who in His very essence is love. - adapted

7. “He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass.” – George Herbert

8. Colossians 3:13b “... if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”

III. Love Disseminated

A. Galatians 5:22a “But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”

B. John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

C. The world will judge us and the church by how our brotherly love is manifested.

D. One of the factors that caused the first-century church to grow so rapidly was the oneness and selfless love of the saints. The church father Tertullian (about AD 200) quoted the heathen as saying about Christians: "See how they love one another . . . see how they are ready even to die for one another." He saw this as a great factor in causing people to believe on Jesus Christ.