A CALL TO ACTION (PART 3)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Love each other as brothers and sisters.

1 Peter 3:8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

If you were to choose one emotion central to the heart of God and the Word He provided to His created people, it would be love. Anything else would be a very distant Heaven.

Just go to the very overarching theme of the Bible’s sixty-six books, God’s plan for salvation through His Son Jesus that spans from Genesis to Revelation, and you will find love. One simple verse, straight from the mouth of Jesus, affirms it:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Think about this. All people ever born after Adam and Eve were afflicted with a spiritual sin sickness that automatically separated them from the God who made them, a sin sickness that would automatically result in a guilty verdict from God at death and a place in Hell forever.

But God, out of His deep compassion and grace and, yes, love didn’t wish for this to be the final outcome for anyone and so He did something about it, something that would require a sacrifice of the greatest magnitude. This sacrifice for atoning the sins of the world could only come from a divine and holy source, someone who was perfectly sinless, and the only One who would qualify would be a very offspring of God Himself.

And so, He sent His only Son into the world, conceived in a virgin named Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit and born into a life that lasted only thirty-three years until He willingly allowed Himself to be crucified, paying the death penalty that every sinner deserved.

Why did He lay down His life for all people, most of which He would never personally meet this side of Heaven?

We go back to His words for the answer:

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command. John 15:13-14

Through His selfless willingness to die to save others, Jesus showed the greatest love known, a love referred to “agape” love which simply means that a person holds such a deep affection for another that they would be willing to die in their place. THIS was the love that Jesus showed and THIS is the love He called His followers to show one others. For going back to John 15, Jesus also said this:

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” v.12

Friends, as Christians, this is the call to action we find Peter using as we see our verse from chapter three of his first letter. He simply writes these words to his audience, “God’s chosen people” who were “living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1) and, of course, in turn, to us today:

Love each other as brothers and sisters. v.8

As believers in Christ, all Jesus followers are as much a part of God’s family as He is, co-heirs to the very Kingdom of Heaven (Romans 8:14-17). This makes all Christian brothers and sisters in and of Christ, and expected to “love each other” as He has loved them. This means willing to die for one another if needed.

Today’s call to action, part three of this series, is a call to love as Jesus loved, and it’s high time we start to really do this as He commanded. The church and our world will be a much better place if we do.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.