How Is Your Love Life

Jesus said in Luke 10:27, “And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”’  Are you really doing what this says or are you just kidding yourself?  

It is not real hard to gauge these things, the Word says in Matthew 6:21, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  I know this is talking about God and money, but I think whatever your treasure is can be in competition with God, and God needs to be first in your life.

How much time do you spend with God compared to the time you spend with the other things you own, or your hobbies?  What dominates your thought life, in other words what do you think about the most?  Can people tell that you’re a Christian just by your actions and your words?  

If I were to go where you live and ask your neighbors about you, what would they say?  I realize there are some exceptions, some people seem to be very hard to get along with no matter how hard you try, but for the most part what do you think their reaction would be, positive or negative and do they know that you are a believer?  Your neighbors need to know that you care for them; they need to experience your love.  All these things are very important, Jesus said this to His disciples in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Maybe you are like me at times, and you feel like you are just being used by people and that is the only reason they call or come around because they want something.  To be honest I feel that way most of the time, mostly just being taken advantage of.  But like I always say, when you get up in the morning you have choices to make, you are either going to love and forgive or wind up a bitter and angry person, separated from God because of your sin of unforgiveness.  I chose the former and not the latter.  

Forgiveness and love are key factors in the believer’s life, without them you will become totally miserable and ineffective in your Christian walk.  Maybe you are trying to justify yourself like the lawyer did in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-37.  When he said this in verse 29, “But wishing to justify himself he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?”  Then Jesus told him a story about a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho being robbed, beaten and stripped on the way and left on the road half dead.  Two men came along, one was a Priest, the other a Levite and when they saw the man they passed by on the other side and did nothing for him.  Then another man came by who was a Samaritan and when he saw the man he had compassion on him, bandaging up his wounds, pouring wine and oil on them and putting the man on his animal to take him to an Inn where he took care of him.  He also gave the innkeeper money to finish his care and said he would give him whatever else it cost to take care of the man when he returned from his journey.  Then Jesus asked the lawyer, “who proved to be the neighbor,” and he said, “the one who had compassion on him.”  So Jesus said, “go and do the same,” which meant that the person that lives next door to you is not the only one that is considered your neighbor.

Love helps those who are in need, regardless of color or ethnic background.  Think of this, the Jews and Samaritans hated each other because the Jews considered themselves a pure race and the Samaritans half breeds, part Jew and part Gentile.  Jews would walk all the way around Samaria to get to their destination; they would never walk through Samaria.  Like I titled this tidbit; “How Is Your Love Life?”  Something to think about, have a great day and God bless!!