SEEDS FOR LIFE

I love watching Extreme Makeovers. You know the ones. A person is unhappy with their appearance. They have plastic surgery, eye surgery, new hair, sheik, stylish clothes. I love watching the transformation, but I am also somewhat saddened by the unhappiness people have with themselves. After the camera is turned off and the stage is dark, what is the true ending? Is the person really happier? Are they really different on the inside? We've all heard the saying, "be comfortable in the skin you're in".


So many of us are not pleased with the vessel God has given us. We are charged to care for this temple of the Holy Spirit, but how? We must have an internal extreme makeover. We are often kinder to our pets than the people in our homes.


A NEW COMMAND:
Jesus gave his disciples a new command - love one another. We will be identified as His disciples by our ultimate action of love. How is this love possible? This love is manifested by our belief in God's Son, Jesus Christ. Notice God calls it a COMMAND not a suggestion. We have no alternative choice. Obedience is called for.


John 13:34-35, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."


John again shared this thought in his first epistle. Follow the command of Jesus.


1 John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.


A COSTLY COMMAND:
Is it any wonder that John wrote in his letters about this supreme example of love? Jesus is our utmost model. As He loved us, so we must love one another. His love was costly to Him. It cost Jesus his very life. What is our cost for this love? Is it worth it?


John 3:16-17 "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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.


1 John 4:7-12 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.


AN UNCONDITIONAL COMMAND:
We love conditionally. Our families are easier to love than the street person standing on the corner with the handwritten cardboard sign, "Help a Hungry Vet." We look in disgust and wonder why they don't take a bath, put on clean clothes and get a job. How does Jesus look at that man? He doesn't expect him to clean up on the outside until the inside is new, clean, forgiven. Why should we expect any different? However, His love is unconditional. He loved us before we ever existed and whatever condition we find ourselves. This love would be an example of God's love to all men…


Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.


2 John 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.


The New Unger's Bible Dictionary defines OBEDIENCE this way. …Obedience is to be viewed not only with respect to the relations existing between God and man and between man and society but also with respect to the example of Christ and man's relation to Him. (from. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright (c) 1988.)


According to this definition, and as a result of Jesus' example, there are three ways to think about obedience.
" Obedience between God and man;
" obedience between man and society;
" the example of Christ (his obedience) and our relation to Him.

We have a choice - a responsibility - a decision.

Obey or disobey?
Love or Hate?


Copyright by Jeanne Martin 2008. All scripture is NIV

Jeanne has written prayer journals for over 30 years. She has written many devotions based on her childhood experiences. Recently she has begun re-working a children's historical novel. She brings her faith into every article she writes. She and her husband have 7 beautiful grandchildren with 2 new grandbabies due in 2008. Jeanne and her husband work with a non-profit organization which ministers to the inner city population of Oklahoma City. She writes the monthly newsletter for this organization. Their website is: www.lovelinkministry.org