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Love One Another
Rene:
All good points, but the love I am specifically talking about (that I feel Jesus and the Apostles are talking about in the scriptures I listed), is specifically instructing the "Body of Christ", to love one another. I'm focusing more on the love that we like-minded believers should have toward one another, not the agape love we should have for all of mankind.
Is it hard for us like-minded believers to love one another? Does the lack of physical contact and our inability to see one another on a regular basis get in the way of our loving one another? Or should that even matter? Or maybe it's not a problem for us and we all have the love that Jesus commanded us to have for one another. :-\ Just asking. :D
Ray's bible study on "Love" (http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3719.0.html) covers the difference in agape and phileo love. It's an excellent lesson to review as well.
René
Dave in Tenn:
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
UNFEIGNED love. You can't feign unfeigned love any more than you can draw a square circle. This puts the 'love one another' commandment even deeper into the spirit. Just as it's a struggle to enter rest, it's a struggle to learn to love one another. Is it hard? It's hard to get there, I think.
onelovedread:
One thing that comes to mind is the attitudes of some of us to homosexuals.
When I migrated to the US from Jamaica (a very homophobic society) in the nineties, I was initially very hostile towards them.
While I worked at a hotel in Washington DC, I met two co-workers who were of that lifestyle. In getting to know them and by hearing their stories, I gradually became more tolerant and came to realize that homosexuals are God's children too.
I believe that we are expected to love the homosexual even though we may hate the act itself.
On another note, some of the hardest people to love are our relatives:)
mharrell08:
--- Quote from: Rene on August 11, 2011, 01:08:16 PM ---All good points, but the love I am specifically talking about (that I feel Jesus and the Apostles are talking about in the scriptures I listed), is specifically instructing the "Body of Christ", to love one another. I'm focusing more on the love that we like-minded believers should have toward one another, not the agape love we should have for all of mankind.
Is it hard for us like-minded believers to love one another? Does the lack of physical contact and our inability to see one another on a regular basis get in the way of our loving one another? Or should that even matter? Or maybe it's not a problem for us and we all have the love that Jesus commanded us to have for one another. :-\ Just asking. :D
Ray's bible study on "Love" (http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3719.0.html) covers the difference in agape and phileo love. It's an excellent lesson to review as well.
René
--- End quote ---
Sometimes it's easier getting along with people in the world compared to believers. When such a small community as we have possesses something as valuable as the Truth, pride & vanity will surely set in. None of us can be told anything because we all 'have the Spirit'. This is part of the baggage from Babylon that none of us has really let go: the vanity from believing that we are one of God's favorites. After all these years, I still don't know how to not let pride set in with the longing to be one of God's Elect. I swell with pride when my earthly father tells me he's proud of me...how much more our Father in Heaven?
More times than not, people in the world are less confrontational and dogmatic about who they are and what they believe. They care less about 'being right' and more about living life how they want to live. Not saying I endorse it, but that's just how it seems to me.
Marques
moxicarose:
Okay, so if we're just talking about loving 'the bretheren' than my thought is, isn't there a process (just like in any relationship) where you get to know someone and then at some point it becomes apparent that they are of the bretheren, and then you come to phileo/love them? Or am I being completely carnal in my thinking? The reason I ask this is because in my experience of the past several years, it seems like other self proclaimed Christians expect me to wrap my arms around them and love them like a brother just because they are "Christian, too". In a place like this, on the forum, I believe that it can be sometimes easier to identify each other (or maybe tougher depending on the personalities)...so, that all being said, I have struggled with knowing when I am just to have regular love for my fellow man, and when I am to fall in love with them like family..:) Lastly, I find it funny that sometimes I feel a swell of love in my heart for a bum on the street, (obviously from the Lord because I used to avoid eye contact with anyone on the street before) and then feel awkward and strange with some of my peers who claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus. :) Isn't that a headscratcher?
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