An Encouraging Word- They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love (12/14/2025)

An Encouraging Word- They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love 
December 14, 2025

     A few years ago I started praying and asking God to help me to love other people the same way that He does.  It seemed like immediately all the most unlovable people started crossing my path. I remember asking God, "Hey, are you testing me or something?".  I shake my head at that now because I had no idea what I was asking for.  People are hard to love , and guess what? I am one of those hard to love people too!  Our human idea of love is usually pretty self-serving and honestly , usually it is limited. I love you until you hurt my feelings or offend me or disagree with me. I love you until you disagree with me politically or on religion or hurt my feelings. We place conditions upon love. God's love is completely the opposite of this. To love others like God loves them is to love without strings attached, without the limits of condition, of feelings, overlooking offense and hurt, and without expecting anything back.  Most humans are just not able to do that. 
        There is a reason why love is the first characteristic that Paul listed in his letter to the Galatians as the fruit of the Spirit. To love like God loves is only possible when our lives are surrendered to Christ. 

Less of me, more of Him. 
Read that again-  Less of me! More of Him! 

The more room we make for Christ in our lives, the more we surrender ourselves, the less room there is for offense and hurt. When you are loving like God loves, you love just as an overflow of His Spirit at work in your life.  When we as the church , when we as Christians learn how to do that, and be sincere about it , that is when we will see change in the lives of others around us. Remember the words of that old hymn "They will know we are Christians by our love"? It should say, "They will know we are Christians, not by our love, but by His Love". 


Scriptures to Hide in Your Heart:

Galatians 5:13-26 (English Standard Version)
“13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”


1 John 4: 7-21 (English Standard Version)
“7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”


Wise Words to Ponder:

Sonnet 116 (William Shakespeare)
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”


Songs to Encourage You:
​
Love Can Build A Bridge (made famous by the Judds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laI791ZTrWE&list=RDlaI791ZTrWE&start_radio=1


When I Don’t Know the Way (Gospel Choir)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddg8pHnl4pE&list=RDDdg8pHnl4pE&start_radio=1


O Holy Night / Holy Forever (Bethel Worship and Garret & Kate)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK_SoLUiyKs&list=RDDdg8pHnl4pE&index=2




Wise men (and women) still seek Him! Trust Him. Let Him transform your life in the amazing miraculous way that only He can do! He is faithful to do it. 
You are loved beyond measure. Praying for you this week!
 
Melissa Boggs
Christian Life Academy 

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