The Bible recently made clear to me an astounding truth. It is a truth that I should have known. I have read it a gazillion times in the First Epistle of John. But somehow I had been glossing over it. I believe it is a transforming word for us today. If you will renew your mind to this simple truth, you will be transformed into a new person - a person of peace and joy and freedom. The truth that God wishes to impart to you this day is this: You do not love God more than you love your brothers and sisters in the Lord. By the same measure you love your brother or sister who is with you every day, you love God. The Bible says distinctly in 1 John 4:20, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."
Satan's greatest weapon against the body of Christ is to bait us into taking offense against our brothers and sisters in the Lord over a perceived or actual wrong done against us. Jesus said "offenses will come," yet His implication is that we don't need to TAKE them. Anytime we deal with other people on a close and personal basis there is opportunity for friction to develop. Because of our own pride and shortcomings, we can get rubbed the wrong way. We get our feelings hurt. However, if we continue to dwell on this wrong done against us, it will take root within our heart and begin to cripple us at our very foundation.
Too many Christians are stunted in their spiritual growth and are not experiencing the joy that life in the Spirit has to offer because they are nursing a grudge against someone in the Church. The word "grudge" is from the Old English word which meant "grumbling" or "complaining." That reminds me of the attitude of the people of Israel in the wilderness. Most of their grumbling and complaining was directed at Moses their leader. Leaders are usually the ones that get unjustly blamed for what's wrong with you and me. All but Joshua and Caleb died in that wilderness without ever seeing or entering the promised land. If you have been bearing a grudge, nursing bitter feelings toward some person, the question you have before you today is this - Would you rather die in a spiritual wasteland of bitterness and resentment, or go into the promised land of spiritual maturity and freedom in the Spirit? Will you choose life or death, blessing or a curse?
Jesus said that your religious practice is hypocrisy if you are harboring wrongs. In the Sermon on the Mount, He said, "If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering." He said if we fail to do that, we will end up in bondage, and that, "you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent."
Pass out of death and into life this very hour by making a quality decision to love and forgive your brother. Love is a choice of the will, not an emotional feeling. If Jesus made it a commandment, it must therefore be a choice. Choose life by choosing to forgive.
This is not the happy lesson I originally wanted to write to you today, but there it is. Thanks for reading it.
@ copyright 1999 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.