“He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him.”

When we contend with our strong, hateful emotions, the Lord is gracious and gives us the victory through the power of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Holy Word. When we deal with our inner psyche and get the victory over our sinful mindset and attitudes, we are set free to actually love people, even those who hurt us abominably. It is a life long fight and many battles will rage, but we gain the victory every time, through the love of Christ who has bourn our sin away in His own body on the tree.

What a loving Saviour we have who is willing to bear the consequences of our sin for us, and forgive us when we fall. His long-suffering is so wide and high that we can never scale it or bring it to an end of itself. His love is majestic and strong, stronger than sin and death, and has overcome these two enemies for our sake. We are free to live and have the ability to love because of Him. We love Him so much because He has loved us to the end. We show our love for Him by keeping His commandments and obeying our Heavenly Father. We put nothing else before Him and earnestly strive to be holy people.

“Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

John 13:1

Beloved, we must keep ourselves in the love of God. That means not allowing your psyche to become so low and oppressed that your own needs are not being met and therefore you cannot meet the needs of other people either. We must care for ourselves, that we can care for others, and express the true love of God. Love comes from God, because we naturally do not love and are selfish and unkind, but the work of the Holy Spirit in our life causes us to want this love for ourselves that we might share it around in our life.

If we are loving our sisters and brothers in Christ then we are walking in the light of God, and we are giving none the occasion to stumble or fall into sinful thoughts and ideas. We are sensitive to the needs of all others and do and say things that build up the body of Christ and are encouragers of the brethren. We are positive people with sacrificial attitudes towards other people and will give of ourselves to help sisters and brothers in all kinds of need. We keep out eyes fixed on the prize of gaining Christ and being with Him for eternity.