Matthew 7:12

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets ~ Matthew 7:12


It really is all about love – love for God, love for others, and love for self. If we do not love God first and foremost, and if we do not have God’s love within us, we cannot really know what love is. We live in a superficial world which states love easily and carelessly. I love my home, I love ice cream, I love movie nights, or whatever. The term love has become a commonplace word used to give meaning to the meaningless. Real love means devotion, commitment, and sacrifice. Love is not just another adjective for a materialistic pleasure. Next to loving God and having God’s love within us, we love others. Loving others requires that we know what it is to have God’s grace applied to our lives. Grace is to receive the free and unmerited favour of God, though we did not earn it, or do anything for it. God loves us because we are. We are to love others because we were created in God’s image, and so were they. As we received God’s grace in the midst of our failures, so others deserve our grace recognizing they may fail too. Grace and mercy are the two most important factors of God’s love. Both go together as we are loved by God and love others as God loves them. This type of love is bigger than we are. Loving others means that we see them with God’s eyes, and not with our eyes. Our eyes may be judgmental and critical. God’s eyes are just and holy. Which leads us to loving self. If we do not love our self, we put aside the love God has for us and we in fact reject it. God created us and has a purpose for us. We cannot justify the words and meaning of “for God so loved the world that he sent his only Son” if we hate our self. God’s Son came in love, to love and show love. True love is the summation of the law and the Prophets. Love makes it easy to do good for others, just as you would have them do for you.

Pastor Julia

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