Acts 15:8-9

Acts 15:8-9 - God, who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith.

Whenever we look at someone we make judgements about them. We will form opinion about that person based on what they are wearing, how their hair or makeup is done, how many piercings or tattoos they have or how they are acting. And the list goes on.

Before we have met a person we have made a decision about them in one way or another. This can be dangerous, especially if we are not looking through the eyes of Love.

When Jesus looked at people He saw them with Love and compassion. It didn’t matter what they were going through or had gone through. Their appearance didn’t matter. Jesus Loved them anyway. He looks past the rough exteriors and sees the person inside; He sees the heart.

Unfortunately we are always going to form some sort of opinion about people when we look at them, we can’t change that, but we can change the method by which we form that opinion. We need to train ourselves to see people in Love.

Love God and Love people. That is our command. People are won over by relationship and relationship starts in by seeing people in the right light. Don’t judge people, Love them. Then they will be more likely to listen to what you have to say.

Jude 20:-21

Jude 20-21 - But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s Love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Our faith will not build itself up. We must make a conscious effort to live in a state of constant renewal and refreshing. If we go too long without building ourselves in faith we may grow weary. We have a great future to look forward to: eternal life with Christ. But until then we must continue in the world.

How do we do that? How we do we keep from growing weary? We must build ourselves up in our most holy faith and pray in the Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit is one way that we do build ourselves up in faith, but it is not all we need to do.

“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” We must stay in God’s Word. His Word is living and active and as we get it inside of us it not only builds our faith, but it gives us direction on how to live.

Another way to build your faith is to use it. James says, “Faith without works is dead.” So that would mean that if your faith produces action it is alive. Part of Faith’s action is Love. We must walk in the Love of God at all times towards everybody.

Faith and Love work together when you show kindness to those who are not kind. So to live a full and productive life we must build our faith, pray and walk in Love. Then we will not grow weary as we wait for Christ’s return.

2 John 6

2 John 6 - And this is Love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in Love.

Love is the ultimate command. If we walk in Love we are walking in obedience to God. How do we walk in Love? We walk as Jesus walked. When Jesus was here on earth He gave us the example of how we are to live. And His example was Love.

Jesus first Loved God. Nothing got in the way of His relationship with God and nothing came in between them. Jesus said that all He did was from the Father. His connection with God was one of Love. They were (and are) unified together in such a way that God’s Love overflowed from Him in all He did.

That is how our relationship with God ought to be. We ought to be so in Love with God that His wants and needs supersede our own. When that happens we will truly be able to walk in the Love of God as Jesus did.

As we follow Jesus story through the gospels we see that everywhere He went He Loved people. Jesus would go from city to city and town to town preaching the kingdom of heaven, but He was often interrupted. He would see those who were lost and hurting and His heart would go out to them.

God’s Love would shine through Him every day as He healed the sick and spent time with those who were rejected by others. Jesus not only Loved the ‘good’ people, but He Loved the unlovable. We must strive to do the same and live in obedience to God’s command: Walk in Love.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 – Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in Love.

          In closing his first letter to the Corinthians Paul gives us a summary of how to live a successful life. We have already given our lives to Christ and received salvation; now it is a matter of living it.

          “Be on your guard,” he says, but what do we guard from. Proverbs tells us, “Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23).” Christ has made our hearts new and now we must protect it from being corrupted again. Our life flows from our heart, so guard it and protect it from evil.

          “Stand firm in the faith,” is his next statement. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not of ourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).” Our salvation comes by faith and all the blessings of God are received through faith. So stand firm in what you believe and don’t let doubt or unbelief move you.

          “Be men of courage.” We all strive to be courageous, but we must realize that courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is standing up in the face of fear and knowing that our God is bigger than whatever obstacle is in your way. If you weren't a little bit scared it wouldn't be courage.

          “Be strong.” This next statement seems so simple, but let’s look a little deeper, Where do we find our strength? “Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10),” and the “Joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).” We also see that Paul rejoices in his weakness, because that is where God gives him strength (2 Corinthians 12:9). Our strength comes from God, so be strong in the Lord (Ephesians 6:10).

          “Do everything in Love.” This statement wraps it all up and ties everything together. Jesus told us to Love God and Love people. He said that sums up the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40). God looks to the heart, so if all you do is out of Love, even if you mess up it’ll be ok, because God will see your motive. So above all else I stress to you: walk in Love. Love is the fulfillment of all things. Let the Love of God flow through you.

1 Corinthians 9:22

1 Corinthians 9:22 – To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

Paul had made up his mind. He was sold out for Christ. His life meant nothing to except to win as many as possible to Jesus. “I have become all things to all men so that by all means I might save some.” He had it figured out.

For so many years the church has had certain qualifications to be a Christian. Don’t get me wrong, there are standards that as Christians we should live by, but it is an attitude of the heart and not an appearance in the natural. We are to Love God and Love people. Instead we have spent years trying to conform non-believers to act like us; to dress a certain way, to act a certain way, all before they could come to church.

On top of that we would expect non-believers to come to us instead of going to them. If we look at Jesus life we see He did teach in the temple courts, but He spent most of His time with the people. It didn't matter who they were or where they came from, Jesus wanted to spend time with them. So much so that He was accused of “eating with tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus didn't care about His reputation. Now in all this Jesus never sinned, but that never stopped Him from going to where the sinners were. Here we see Paul continuing in this spirit of Love when he says, “I have become all things to all men.”

Friends, I implore you, the time for waiting is over. Don’t expect the lost to come to you, but get out there and go to them. Spend time with these people and Love on them. Find ways to hang out with them. If you truly Love the lost you will be more concerned with their eternity than your social standing.