Overflow Daily...ish: Loving Others



7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7 (ESV)

At the time this will be published, Valentines Day 2019 will be tomorrow (or today for all my e-mail subscribers). And how fitting that in the “month of love” we are reading through the “book of love”, Song of Songs. Maybe, for some of you, you are putting the final touches for a very special day with your significant other. For others, this is not a very happy occasion and you are reminded of a deep yearning that you have for companionship. Still, for some, the pain of loss is simply too real in your life at the moment. No matter who you are, I want to encourage you to find comfort knowing that God has given a great gift to His people. The gift of the church.

Every time we gather together on the Lord’s Day, we are reminded just how much we need fellowship with one another and how we are to commit to one another. We do not commit to our local fellowship just because they need us, but because we need each other. And this goes beyond the Lord’s day gatherings as we are called by God to exhort and encourage and to provoke one another to good works each and every day. Yes, as the local body we do speak truth and love and light into one another, but God has given us a special grace, the church, which we are to be especially committed to. It is to the local body that we practice the gifts of the spirit for the edification of the local fellowship firstly.

But the love and care that we have for our local body stems from a love we have received from Him. We love, because He has first loved us. And so, we see that this is a command from God to every believer which truly will spring from the life of every believer as we understand what Christ has done for us on the cross. In the very next verse, John repeats himself from a negative perspective in that those who do not love do not know God, for God is love. In verse 20, John reveals the contradictory nature of a person who says that they love God, but hate their brother; he speaks boldly to even call that person a liar.

And so, what does this mean for us? Firstly, thank God for being love and for loving us in sending His Son to us. Secondly, rejoice in the gift that God has given to us, the church. Thirdly, I encourage you to take time today to reach out to a fellow brother and sister at the local body you have committed yourself to and love on them. Like I mentioned before, everyone is at a different place on the day of love. Let’s utilize this day to love our brother. As Jackie DeShannon meant to say, “What the world needs now is love, [God’s] love”.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alex

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