Brotherly Love…

The first week of school is over. I am excited to see what God has in store for me this upcoming semester. The classes that I am taking consists of: Old Testament II, Christian Worldview, Spiritual Formations,  Southern Baptist Life and Work, Eng. 152, and Male Chorale.

The other day I left off my blog with Romans 12:9,  “Let love be geniune. Abhor what is evil;  hold fast to what is good.” Today I want to take it a little further. The scripture that I would like to cover next is Romans 12:10, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”  Wow, what a great way to start off the day! We start with the phrase “brotherly affection”, other translations may say brotherly love. The word for brotherly love in Greek is philadelphia.  Does that sound familiar? It should! This is where the city of Philadelphia got its motto; “the city of brotherly love.” So then, what is this thing called brotherly love?  How are we as Christians suppose to portray such affection for one another? Brotherly love is seeing one in need and willing to help then out no matter the circumstances. Sure, every now and then someone may get mad at their sibbling, closest friend, or brother and sister in Christ, but I have not yet met a true Christian who would not be willing to lay down their life for them. John the Apostle  in 1 John 3: 16-17 writes, “By this we know love, that He (Jesus Christ) laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” If there is someone out there who does not love their own brother/sister, or brother/sister in Christ, then they cannot be a child of the living true God. Bold statement I know, but true.   1 Jon 4: 7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” So we clearly see here that in order to be a Christian, we must LOVE!  If we, as Christians, have the love of God inside of us, we can do nothing but love one another. For God is love, and if we don’t love we don’t know God . The latter part of vs. 10 in chapter 12 of Romans tells us to “outdo one another in showing honor.” So how do we outdo one another? All can be summed in one word, love. We must do what is right in the sight of God and hold fast to it. The love of Christ must be portrayed throughout our daily lives. Be willing to help those in need with broterly love, be kind in all manners. We are called as Christians to first love God, and secondly love people.  I hope this scripture, from the Word of God, will impact your day like it has mine! LOVE!

Love, Love, Love…

Here I am, sitting in my dorm room at the Baptist College of Florida! This upcoming semester, I believe, is going to be awesome. My world view class is one of the main classes that I am looking forward to take.  Dr. Rathel, the professor of Christian Worldview, is a well known person among the Florida Baptist Convention. Hearing nothing but good things about him, I think this class will be very interesting, especially learning about how the world views Christianity.

Today I read Romans 12. One of the many verses that struck me was vs. 9. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

I believe the word “love” is being thrown and tossed around in today’s society. People are saying they love certain things without truly taking time to see if they truly do. A good example is marriages today. Divorce is more common than ever before! Marriage in today’s society is more like having boy friends and girl friends rather than husbands and wives. When people say their wedding vows, do they truly understand what love is? I want this genuine love that Paul talks about in vs. 9. I want to truly love something with all of my heart. The next part of the verse says, “abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” That word abhor means to detest utterly or to hate completely.  Christians are called to love the things of Christ and hate what is evil. We can NEVER be happy in our sin if we are truly saved by God!  Romans 6: 16-18 “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”  Believers must consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.  Now back to Romans 12:9. So Christians are suppose to have a love that is geniune and not fake. Let this love of Christ run through and from your body so that others may see the true and genuine love of Christ. We must HATE COMPLETELY that which is evil. Why? Because we are suppose to HOLD FAST to what is GOOD. What is good? God IS good.  Nothing is considered good outside of God. We as Christians are suppose stand firm in the hope that we have in the love of Christ. ..So HOLD FAST, never let go, to that which is GOOD.  HOLD FAST to God.