Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself
I felt the need to share the following with you. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I do need to share with you what the Lord has laid on my heart.
Text: Gal. 5:13-15
13. For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
15. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Recently, I have visited some websites that have nothing on them but putting down television preachers. Some of them have some nasty comments about preachers. One of them in particular, has a page telling the reader that “This is not a hate site.” When I saw that, my first thought was, “Well, you could have fooled me.”
Some of these sites are worse than others. I find this situation to be so sad. It truly broke my heart. I am praying for the people who own these websites for God to speak to their heart about what they are doing. I also find it sad that you can go to any search engine and type in “hateful Christians,” and a few pages pop up.
Jesus condensed all of the Ten Commandments into one: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” If you love your neighbor as you do yourself, then you will be obeying all the Ten Commandments. God is love. “He who loves not, knoweth not God” is what the Bible says.
These sites have scriptures that they have picked out to try to back up what they are doing. In my opinion, they aren’t doing it in love. They are hurting the church, and are being a stumbling block to the unsaved, and baby Christians. Your attitudes and the things that you do are sometimes the only Bible that people read.
Jesus taught us about love. He also taught us about forgiveness. Read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and reacquaint yourself about what Jesus taught us.
The way that I see it, these people are not showing the love of God when they have websites like this. You can type in the name of virtually any television preacher in a search engine, and all kinds of hateful sites will come up. The proper thing to do would be to pray for the preacher that you have a problem with, and forgive them. There is too much bitterness and strife within the church. Only God’s delivering power can fix the problem.
There are other things that we have to be in prayer about. More important things. Like what is going on in our Governments, and the move to take away our Christian Freedoms. The FCC and our Presidents’ Faith Agenda is quite a scary thing. We need to be united, instead of being divided.
If you don’t agree with what these ministers do, pray for them. What would Jesus do? If you want sinners to come to God, you don’t beat them over the head. You teach them about the love of God and you wait upon the Holy Spirit to draw them in, and you pray for them. If a sinner sees you as being a “hateful Christian”, they aren’t going to want what you have. The people in this world today have enough hate of their own.
There are lots of things ministers do that I don’t agree with. I pray for God to show them and deal with them. “Judgement starts at the house of God.” One day, we will all be judged and give account of ourselves to Him. Don’t be like the world and act like they would. Walk in God’s love, and quit being hateful like the world.
Hebrews 12:6
Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.
Leave the preachers in God’s hands. He can deal with them a lot better than you ever could.
1 John 4:8
8. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11. God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
If you are walking in God’s love, you edify, or build up others. You don’t tear them down. Don’t let the devil use you to destroy others. You have a choice, to either be a healer, (and show God’s love) or to be a destroyer, like the devil is.
Phil. 2:3
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory: but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.
Romans 14:13
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Matthew 18:6
But whoso shall offend one of thes little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
You may say that Jesus was talking about children. Well, if God is our Heavenly Father, that makes us his children. You reap what you sow. If you sow seeds of hatefulness and cause others to stumble over you, then you will reap the same destruction that you sowed.
Luke 6:38
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured unto you again.
If you want good things in your life, and the blessings of God, follow his teachings. Start sowing good seeds. If I have a garden, and plant corn, corn will come up. I can’t plant corn and get onions. It is the same way in the kingdom of God.
Luke 6:41-43
41. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceiveth not the beam that is in thine own eye?
42. Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
43. Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in they brother’s eye.
There are a lot of fault-finders in the church today. If they would turn their fault finding onto themselves for a change, then they would quit sowing seeds of discord that sinners can stumble over. I am not writing this to hurt anyone. God laid this message on my heart, and like the old saying goes, “If the shoe fits-wear it.”
You have a choice-to ignore my words today, or to take this message and apply it to your life. We will all be judged for the things that we do. We are all held accountable for ourselves, not what others do. I don’t know about anyone else, but I want to plant good seeds and win others to Christ. What about you?
As for myself, I plan to pray for those that I don’t agree with instead of having it on the internet and risk having someone stumble over my post. That lost soul may have confidence in the person you are berating. You could cause them to turn away from God and their blood will be on your hands. Think about it, is it worth the risk?
If you are guilty of holding grudges or have any kind of bitterness in your heart, the first step is confessing it to Jesus. Ask him to help you and to heal your deepest hurts, and negative feelings. As Morris Cerullo says “Be a Victor, and not a Victim”.
