Hard to follow...or not?

[Guest HIS girl]

'agua'

I find it easy to love people because I really do love them.God made me this way.

Interesting agua - when were you first aware of this?

Is it empathy, compassion or you are "colour blind" so to speak?

[Guest HIS girl]

'agua'

Not sure what "colour blind" means lol.(I am not racist!! hahaha)

Colour blind to me simply means accepting someone for the simple fact that they are a fellow human being and not putting up walls because of genetic makeup.

[missjenny]

>>>>> Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not knows not God, for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another. 1 John 4:7-8 <<<<<

>>>>> When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: Love... Gal.5:23 <<<<<<

Blessings to you...

[Guest man]

I am beginning to realise more and more that this commandment alone, is simply one of THE most important of all the Bible -

Mark 12

29 Jesus answered him,

[time-keeper]

I have to be honest; as it may be very easy for some of you guys to love others...it's really hard for me. I think God makes us all unique, and gives us all different qualities; loving others is not one of mine, but it's not too hard. I wish to change this someday, but it's super hard for me to love others.

usually i accept those whom i don't know, but those that i have gotten to know, i dislike because they are lazy, or they have a bad language. Also, the main reason why i don't like people is becasue they are very immature about things.

How do you guys suppose i get past this???

I have a huge problem now that i think about it...help!!!

[Gideons300]

Is this the hardest commandment of all for Christians to follow?

Yeshua said "I am giving you a new commandment; that you keep on loving each other. In the same way that I have loved you, you are also to keep on loving each other. Everyone will know that you are my talmidim by the fact that you have love for each other." CJB..Yochanan 13 vv 34, 35

Do we actively try hard to follow it? Can we say honestly that just from our behaviour, others know we are adherents to the Way?

It also says in John 13 v 1: Now before the Feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. NKJV

He loved them to the end...hmmm

I am beginning to realise more and more that this commandment alone, is simply one of THE most important of all the Bible -

It is more important than going to Church every Sunday, tithing every payday, helping friends and family out and even serving in the Church....

It is love for fellow man - whether known to you or not - to see good befall a person and not evil.

No wonder it says in the Bible that it is easier to love those who love us back...(not word for word translation but the gist is there )

The Lord has been nudging me more and more toward these verses John 13 v34,35 on a daily basis and it's extremely hard..in my own flesh...I can only do it with the strength of the One who IS Love.

I have many people in my life who I view as hard to love...I am working on it though ....

I am going to throw a monkey wrench in this very excellent post. What is posted is true....but.... (don't you hate that?)

The fact is it is not hard to love others as we love ourselves, it is impossible. We are simply wired to self love, self preservation, thoughts of self pleasure, due to our adamic nature.

God does indeed will us to love like this, but there is a catch. We cannot get there from here. We must figure out how to get out of our flesh in order to do so. Then, we need to experience the love of God and the full understanding of the forgiveness we really needed to be brought to becoming sons and daughters of His. The word says "He who is forgiven much, loves much". Does that mean we nood to do really bad things tin order to love more? LOL, no. We need to finally see how bad our flesh really is in reality in God's eyes. We oftentimes think that we are good people who have made a few mistakes and God forgave them thru Christ. No wonder we have a hard time loving. Until we see that our "righteousness" is really a filthy rag in God's eyes, that there is none righteous, none "good", we cannot truly appreciate what a miracle God did in saving us. It is only when we ourselves are being loved fully by God and walking in that abiding nature that we then can even begin to love our fellow man, saved or not, as we love ourselves.

As Christians, we mistakenly hold up the ideal and we think we are to imitate, to duplicate it. How foolish we can be. Our only hope is to be possessed by that love ourselves and let the overflow of His love in us love the unlovely through us. As Paul said:

"I no longer live but Christ now lives in me and the life that I now life, I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Galatians 2:20

There is but one way, putting on the new nature. Paul said in Ephesians 6"

"Nothing profits but a new creature."

How I pray we finally see the deep truth hidden here.

Blessings,

Bruce

[missjenny]

I have to be honest; as it may be very easy for some of you guys to love others...it's really hard for me. I think God makes us all unique, and gives us all different qualities; loving others is not one of mine, but it's not too hard. I wish to change this someday, but it's super hard for me to love others.

usually i accept those whom i don't know, but those that i have gotten to know, i dislike because they are lazy, or they have a bad language. Also, the main reason why i don't like people is becasue they are very immature about things.

How do you guys suppose i get past this???

I have a huge problem now that i think about it...help!!!

To be honest, even tho there are those with more natural inclinations...such as in loving...however, to agape-love others takes the unction of the Holy Spirit. It took me years of asking God to help me treat others the way I would want to be treated...and so God began showing me that loving others, or treating others the way I would want to be treated, literally meant taking my eyes off of the behaviors of the others. Then what this meant was that I was not allowing others behaviors to dictate my own behaviors, and instead allowing Christ to dictate them. I started out waking up each morning with the deliberate intention of looking for oportunities that day to treat others in the same way I would want them to treat me...which is not burdensome at all. So, when I shopped, I would smile at the cashier, and look at the waitress in the eye and be kind, and walk down the street with a positive expression on my face, and just took whatever opportunity that came my way to show care to others. It started out as a little bit...ah...robotic..kinda...but as I did it everyday, it became a part of me and God changed my heart and it is now a joy and it is very natural now for me to think of how to show a caring attitude towards others. So, basically you ask God for the unction and take a few 'baby' steps and allow God to work in you the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Oh, and by the way....when you spend time loving others, it is much harder for your flesh to be harming others/sin....therefore the flesh becomes very managable...Gal.5:16-26

[time-keeper]

I have to be honest; as it may be very easy for some of you guys to love others...it's really hard for me. I think God makes us all unique, and gives us all different qualities; loving others is not one of mine, but it's not too hard. I wish to change this someday, but it's super hard for me to love others.

usually i accept those whom i don't know, but those that i have gotten to know, i dislike because they are lazy, or they have a bad language. Also, the main reason why i don't like people is becasue they are very immature about things.

How do you guys suppose i get past this???

I have a huge problem now that i think about it...help!!!

thank you for your honesty!! it is much appreciatedt!

the first thing i thought of is that we tend to extend grace according to how willing we are receive God's grace. God's grace abounds in infinite measures, but we are not always so accepting of it. we sometimes think we need to do sufferance for our sins. i'm not talking about the natural consequences of sin but the condemnation that we can sometimes heap upon ourselves for our sin.

i believe God does something we humans have a tough time with: He separates us from our behavior. God doesn't see a person whose language is bad or is lazy or is immature. He sees a soul in need of salvation and/or healing. He looks past the behavior and sees the reasons behind it. and He draws them to Himself with lovingkindness. we cannot always know the reasons for the behavior, but we can know God does. even if we do know the reasons, it is sometimes difficult for us to get past the behavior!

how much of God's proffered grace do you actually absorb? i would start there. then try praying that God lets you see people with His eyes. pray that you see beyond the behavior to the soul of the person, and the hurt that may be behind the behavior.

i do agree that God makes us all unique and what is easy for some may be very difficult for others. but i do think we all have the potential to exemplify Jesus' love. family seems to be the hardest for me to show love to. i think expectations have something to do with this! maybe it's the same with you?

Yes, and no...i think that there are many factors for me to get to love somebody, but to me, it is not only family. actually, my family is fine...most anyway, it's hard to love my younger sister, but i know God is dealing wit it as we speak, because i have seen improvement;

And i totally get what you say about amplifying God's love into us. It is defenetly something i have to work on.

I also see what you mean when you say that we need to see everyone as God would see them, to look beyond the actions, and into the reasons for them.

Thanks so much for your reply, because it has enlightened me.

Edited June 4, 2010 by time-keeper

[Gideons300]

I am going to throw a monkey wrench in this very excellent post. What is posted is true....but.... (don't you hate that?)

The fact is it is not hard to love others as we love ourselves, it is impossible. We are simply wired to self love, self preservation, thoughts of self pleasure, due to our adamic nature.

God does indeed will us to love like this, but there is a catch. We cannot get there from here. We must figure out how to get out of our flesh in order to do so. Then, we need to experience the love of God and the full understanding of the forgiveness we really needed to be brought to becoming sons and daughters of His. The word says "He who is forgiven much, loves much". Does that mean we nood to do really bad things tin order to love more? LOL, no. We need to finally see how bad our flesh really is in reality in God's eyes. We oftentimes think that we are good people who have made a few mistakes and God forgave them thru Christ. No wonder we have a hard time loving. Until we see that our "righteousness" is really a filthy rag in God's eyes, that there is none righteous, none "good", we cannot truly appreciate what a miracle God did in saving us. It is only when we ourselves are being loved fully by God and walking in that abiding nature that we then can even begin to love our fellow man, saved or not, as we love ourselves.

As Christians, we mistakenly hold up the ideal and we think we are to imitate, to duplicate it. How foolish we can be. Our only hope is to be possessed by that love ourselves and let the overflow of His love in us love the unlovely through us. As Paul said:

"I no longer live but Christ now lives in me and the life that I now life, I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Galatians 2:20

There is but one way, putting on the new nature. Paul said in Ephesians 6"

"Nothing profits but a new creature."

How I pray we finally see the deep truth hidden here.

Blessings,

Bruce

we put on the new nature when we are saved!

I would love to agree with you and in theory, perhaps I can, but how few truly believe it, and thus, it does not profit them. How many are still battling their flesh when we are told clearly that we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwells in us. What is our testimony of ourselves. Do we believe we are light in the Lord or are we sinners battling to do good and to "become" light. Either we are in the flesh or in the spirit, we cannot be both.

How many are experiencing the victory our shiuled of faith gives us, quenching every arrow? How many are finding the God does indeed give them a way of escape in every temptation? Those are promises to our new nature. Sadly, most are still laboring to "become" new and finding out even after 20 or 30 years that they are still as fleshly as they always were. just perhaps a bit more religious in their fleshliness.

Blessing, Bruce

Edited June 4, 2010 by Gideons300

[Guest HIS girl]

'Gideons300'

It is only when we ourselves are being loved fully by God and walking in that abiding nature that we then can even begin to love our fellow man, saved or not, as we love ourselves.

HIS girl

I will comment on this becuase I find your wording interesting...

When Christ died on the Cross - the job of forgiveness wasn't partial, it was total.

It is WE who need to comprehend that our slate was completely wiped clean but most of us live the life of a partially clean slate thinking that "good works" will erase the rest...not so.

We are ALWAYS being loved fully by God - not half, not some of the time but ALL of the time....

We need to get this right before we can love others I think....