Love your neighbour

Matt 22:39 A second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' (NLT)
Matt 22:39 The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' (NASB)

This verse is what Jesus said in response to the question of which is the greatest commandment of the law. The first was to love God with everything that you have, are, and do. The second is EQUALLY important, to love your neighbour as yourself.

I was praying and asking God, should i love my neighbour and accept their sins, their flaws. The whole concept of people accepting flaws is something i have always championed. We are all flawed, imperfect, and essentially, if you love someone you should accept their flaws. Someone told me that i was not like that, i spent a lot of time trying to change that person. I believed that yeah, i should be more accepting. I should accept the character.

Then i realised that God DOES NOT ACCEPT FLAWS. Mind you, He forgives sin but He does NOT accept it. Big difference. Forgiveness means that you are forgiven, that He loves you BUT NOT THE SIN/FLAW/FAILURE. Heb 10:26 tells us that "(F)or if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins," God forgives the sin but hey, it's gotta go.

Love your neighbour as you love yourself. I been fighting sin all the time, encouraged to press on to be more like God. Why should i not extend that same level of grace to others? I am called to love others the way i love myself, if i love myself enough to want to spur others to be more like God, then i too should spur others to be like God.

God does not want us to remain as fallen people. Yes we have and will sin. We are fallen. But we have a saviour who rose up and cleanse and sanctified us, that we may rise up. Bible tells us we are in a war. We are fighting. Fighting to rise UP. Fighting against the spirit of the world. Fighting to be MAN and WOMAN of GOD, Filled with the SPIRIT of GOD, not of the world.

EPH 6 tells us of the armour of God. Why would you need the armour except if you are ready for a battle? You are called to PUT on that armour, to fight.

Fight therefore to be like God. Fight therefore against the spirit that says if you love someone you have to accept their faults. YOU CANNOT. Bible does NOT accept faults. We are made in the image of God, to one day return blameless and without spot. God FORGIVES faults, not accepts it. Fight that you might rise above the tide.

This applies not just to spurring on towards God, but when you are down, Fight the downess. You are VICTORIOUS in Christ, WHERE IS THAT VICTORY? If your friends are not walking right with God, even the littlest bit, FIGHT that spirit of the world.

Love them Like Jesus

Something a friend told me last night struck me as painfully true.

People know how to love when it comes to the easy things. When there is joy and laughter, when there is hope and there is life. People know how to love. But when things happen, when one of their friends are hurt and broken, people dun know how.

I learnt that the best way, is to hear their cries. Listen with the spirit to discern what the person is trying to cry out. And dun try to tell the person what the person needs to do. Dun rebuke, dun do anything. Simply listen.

One thing i have learnt, when with people who hurt, dun try to correct them. When people hurt, we want to tell them to come back to God, tell them what they can and cannot do, christiany stuff. It does work, but rarely. The best you can do, is listen, and ask the holy spirit what to do there and then.

It is the one thing i know i have. The ability to discern God's heart at the moment. And once you get there, you learn a lot of things. The father's heart, when his children is crying, is also crying. He has rebuke but he holds it in. He has words of wisdom but he holds it in. What he does, is to strengthen his children to walk on.

When someone is down, affirm the person. Dun correct the person, but hear the person, affirm the person, then talk to the person Affirmation opens doors to the person's heart, affirmation shows them you care for them even when they were running a good race. Affirmation drives them to realise that they have fallen, but that their journey so far has been worth it. Affirmation pushes them back onto realisation that truth is stronger than the pain they feel.

A lot of hurt is done by friends who accidentally cause pain to one another, whether through neglect, ignorance, or just not loving a person the wya the person needs. Recently, i fought that storm. I liek to say i came out praising God. I did, but during the storm, i failed to praise God.

But i learnt about friendship. I learnt how preachy i can get when my friends are down. To them, i apologise unreservedly. To my friends who listened to me, thanks. No counsel you can give is better, than a ear you devote to listening. No counsel is wiser, then the knowledge you care. That is all.

So many of my friends meant well, started to show me the word of God. When i am down, the word means little unless the person knows to speak the rhema and not the logos, where the former refers to the living word and the latter, the written. There is a difference. Spiritually and emotionally.

But through it all, God called me to do one thing. Love them. Love them like He loved them. (He also rebuked me but that is for another thing)

I thank God that he gave me this privilege. I know it is his heart for his people. But the God we serve is bigger than all things. We let God be God.