How Can I Do it?

I've heard people over the years, "How can I love people that are living in sin? Isn't that saying that's it OK for them to live that way?"

Let me give you the answer to that in two passages...

The first is 1 John 4:20-21

"If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also."

Jesus when he told the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37, was telling people to show mercy on everyone, but not just with their words, but also with their actions. See we can live next door to someone, and not be their neighbor. A neighbor is someone who cares for people, even if they are different than you.

But the scripture that really slams the point home, is in that same chapter, 1 John 4, but it is in verse 8

1 John 4:8 says, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."

See, the bible says that, even while we were still sinners, God loved us. We were once sinners, that just needed to see that Love of the Father, in order to change. People just need to see the love of the Father, whether that is through this beautiful creation of His we call Earth. Of they could see God's love, through the grace and mercy of a willing vessel, who is willing to look past people's sometimes rough exterior, to love on them the way Christ loved us.

- Could you be that willing vessel that God can use to spread His love and message of redemption everywhere you go?

- Pastor George Finney