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Love

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even “sinners” love those who love them. (Luke 6:32 NIV)

This kind of love is not a distinctively Christian trait. In fact, Jesus said that “even sinners love those who love them.” Many Christians love those who love them or love lovely people and think that they are evidencing Christian love, when in fact, they are loving in a humanistic fashion. In other words, they love in the same way every other human being loves. There is a distinctive love that only Christians have. They have it because they received it when it was given to them by the Lord.

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

His love for us had nothing to do with our loveliness or our love for Him. It had to do with His nature and our need. When we share this love with others, it should have nothing to do with others’ love for us or their loveliness. Jesus said,

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. (Luke 6:35a NIV)

If you are not loving as Christ loved, you are either a disobedient Christian or you are not a Christian.

(An excerpt from On Being a Christian by Jim Wilson)

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