Devotion In motion
Weekend Inspiration
2 John 1-3
In the early 1960’s, 1967 to be precise, the Beatles wrote a song that hit number 1 in the charts. The title was “All you need is love” The premise was that all a person needed was to love and be loved and it didn’t matter where you were or what you saw. It was a song that said that love is everything and with love we could save the world.
Well John would have a little to say about that in 2 John 1-3
“The Elder, To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, ;because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love”
John’s theme in 2 John is: love in truth.
John told us in 1 John, if we love God we’ll love our brother. Now was John saying that love supersedes anything. I don’t think so because here we’re told real love never ignores the truth. Remember first and foremost that God’s love is always in harmony with God’s truth. If ever our love causes us to ignore the truth of God’s word – if in the name of love we tolerate someone’s sin, or gloss over someone doing wrong, or accept a falsehood, we need to realize we’re not showing the true love of God. Real love affirms and supports God’s truth!
And in today’s “Can’t Offend, be Tolerant-Of-Everything, Watered Down World” there are many Christians and many churches that have adopted a “Love is Supreme, that we are to have Unity at all Costs” type of mentality. To them nothing is as important as love, peace, and unity. Apparently, they’ve forgotten the words of Jesus.
In Luke 12:51-53 the Lord said, “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother in-law.”
Jesus came to draw a line in the sand. He came to confront us with the truth about God and about life and about ourselves, and he came to help us to realize that as Christians we would make decisions that put us at odds with people who choose the opposite. And Sometimes friction even erupts in the same family. Not everyone humbles themselves and receives the truth. It’s been said, “You shall know the truth and the truth can make you mad.” To insist on unity at all costs glosses over the reality of objective truth – God’s truth.
Once a pastor called the kids to the front of the church for a children’s sermon. The pastor taught on unity. He said, “Boys and girls, God wants us all to be one.” A little four year-old shouted out, “Yea, but I wanna be five.” The truth is, all people are NOT one.
To suggest that all Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, Mormons should just forget their differences and love one another as brothers is ridiculous. As Christians we should love all people and seek to lead them to Jesus, but for us to embrace them as family is to deny the truth that saves us and defines us! Real love will never deny or compromise God’s truth! And to suggest that it really doesn’t matter what you believe – to suggest that doctrine is irrelevant and unimportant – and that all that should matter to us is to love – is to be totally naïve about what the Bible teaches!
The notion that truth is irrelevant is straight from the pit of Hell. Look Your doctrine will determine your destiny. Having love, and even faith, isn’t enough!
It matters what the object of your love and faith is in and in whom it is. The real question is, can the object of your faith save you? Just because a baby can suck a bottle is no guarantee he or she will grow up healthy. It depends on the contents of that bottle! Well in the same way, faith alone will never save. Faith and love has to be grounded in truth! God’s truth–His word-the Bible.
“Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy”.
Warren Wiersbe
Amen
Victor Tafoya
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