Thought fir Friday, 6 October 2023

 1 John 4:20-21

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister,

that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we have not seen?  And God himself has commanded that we must love not only him but our Christian brothers and sisters too.

On Wednesday, I wrote about a Scottish preacher with a slight tinge of an American accent, but I didn’t get his name.  Later that day, I received an email containing the following text: ‘Just read your Thought for the Day. Any chance the Scots minister was Alistair Begg? He is a Baptist minister that used to preach at Hamilton Baptist Church before moving to USA. I've met him a few times, last time was at a wedding 11 years ago, he did the service and I did a reading, happy days! You can Google him - he's got a Wikipedia page.’  Well I did Google him and it was him so I have to thank Alistair Begg for the content of Wednesday’s thought and that email goes to prove at times, it really can be a small world in which we live.

The content of today’s reading has been covered many times in these thoughts that go out 3 times/week and it does no harm to hear this message again and again.  Doing the right thing is not always easy, it doesn’t always come as second nature to us to do what we know would be acceptable in the eyes of our Saviour.  It is often difficult and if we fail, we need to recognise that, pray for forgiveness and try much harder the next time the situation arises.  God doesn’t just ask us to behave in this way, he commands us to behave in this way.  If we continue to fail, we need to ask ourselves how God may view repeated failures to do what is right.

Any time we find ourselves in the company of a group of people, maybe in a work situation, maybe in a social situation e.g. a wedding or maybe even in a church situation, there will be those we take to fairly quickly, those we can take or leave and those we would probably prefer to avoid.

In Acts 10, there is a story of Simon Peter going to the home of Cornelius, a captain in the Roman Army who feared the God of Israel, but in the eyes of Jews, was still a Gentile and Jews hated or, at the very least, took nothing to do with those who were not of their faith.  This is a great and interesting story that is worth a read when you get a chance.  God used Cornelius to open up Simon Peter’s eyes to the need for everyone to be brought to salvation through Christ, including the Gentiles. 

There is a view that if we are able to follow this commandment, it is one way of demonstrating our love for God and that hatred for others is incompatible with a genuine faith in him, no matter who they are and no matter what they have done and no matter how hard a challenge it is for us.

Prayer - Dear God, we pray that we may love one another as you have loved us. Help us to see the good in others and to be patient with their shortcomings. We pray that we may be able to forgive those who have wronged us and to seek forgiveness from those whom we have wronged. We ask that you help us to be kind and compassionate towards others, and to always act in a way that is pleasing to you. We pray that you will bless us with your love and grace, and that we may be a blessing to others.  Amen