“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I haved loved you, that ye also love one another.”  (John 13)

 

There is something missing in Christ-ianity. This is a general statement and i do not speak specifically to any church or any person…not yet anyway, but i will. This missing something is or should be obvious and if it isn’t Woe unto us. Holmes need not be consulted on this. No one need venture to 221b Baker Street. Instead we will visit Christ at Matthew 2412, “…the love of many shall wax cold.” If we compare this with Paul’s teaching on the church’s falling away just prior to the anti- christ appearing, we must infer that love in the local church has been, and will be waxing cold as we enter or grow ever so closer to the tribulation period (i teach the doctrine that Christ-ians will NOT be raptured and will NOT miss the tribulation. I do not see it taught in Scripture.)

The lost persons in the local churches will certainly betray the body of believers in the local congregation as will unsaved family members. That is when we are full blown tribulation saints. But let us stick to the present.

The other day i came a cross a FB page and on this page the writers and commenter were attacking C.S. Lewis and Billy Graham. To know me and to understand why i did what i did, you need to know, i consider authors that have gone to be with Christ, as friends and teachers.

Therefore when i read what i read, my friends, teachers were being attacked viciously. I’ve heard this kind of hate before and the same is true of most if not all of them. They have not read these men for themselves. They are lazy and know nothing of what they speak. I know this because i was once like this. I too beat on Graham and enjoyed hearing others trash him. Why? Because Preachers and church-folk said he was no good. Thought me, if you can’t trust your fellow church member and pastor, who can you trust. I learned a valuable lesson through all of that Graham hate…Go to the source for yourself and lean not on another’s understanding!!!

After i condemned the lies and slander, they forgot about Lewis and Graham and came for me. Compared to what these Christ-ians(?) said to me and about me made their Lewis and Graham hate look like love.

Beloved, they called me lost, the son ofthe devil, they said i did notcare about sound doctrine, i was called an idolater and was told anyone who sits under myteaching is being taught falsedoctrine because i was a false teacher. These persons came at me all day long. They were like littles dogs biting at my ankles.

I ended the thread or conversation by saying that their is no love whatsoever coming from any of them. I suggested the Lord was not pleased with what was said. I was careful not to attack the persons but only their lies.

I am aware that there are Christ-ians that enjoy debate. I have a brother or we have a brother, rather that is like this. I call him 3rd Samuel. Sam enjoys debating others and these debates can get intense, but their is always the element of love and respect and the recognition that those debating are brothers in Christ. If a person is going to debate, this is the model.

However, the discussion i had on FB is the antithesis to a fruitful debate. It was more like the Christ-cursed fig tree. The persons i was exchanging ideas with, if they had Christ-ian love in their heart wd have sought to show me my errors instead of slandering me…a brother(?).

Reader, Paul makes it abundantly clear, without Christ-ian love one (1) has nothing. All the faith and all the hope and all the understanding and all the knowledge in the world is worthless without love beingin the mix.

An analogy: God would not be God without His Glory and Holiness. Likewise, the Christ-ian is not a Christ-ian without love.

Christ was not suggesting we love one another, no, He was commanding it. He did not say, love the person you like. No, His teaching WAS love neighbor and enemy….His new COMMANDMENT is to do so AS HE HAS DONE.

While it is good that thete exists affection in some love, it isnot necessary in Christ-ian love. Christ-ian love is defined in the closing verses of Matthew five (5). But Matthew thirteen (13) intensifies that love with “as I have loved you.” He later says, “I have loved them unto the end.” Therefore, Reader, let us love one another as Christ loves us and let us do so unto the end…the end that shall never come as there be no end to the Christ-like and the Christ-lover.

Godspeed.