The Daily Fountain Daily Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 28 October 2019 – Love One Another

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TOPIC: Love One Another

READ: John 15:17-27 (NKJV)

17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 He who hates Me hates My Father also.

24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

THE MESSAGE:

One Christian writer once said that love is not just one of the characteristics of the Kingdom of God; it is in fact the OXYGEN of the Kingdom. Just as every living being needs oxygen to survive, so also love must be regarded as the life of the Kingdom. But it is love as defined by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and not by the World. The love which the Lord mandated His disciples to show is the one that is selfless. It is sacrificial and without hypocrisy. Christians must love as Christ Himself loved them (John 15:12).

Jesus Christ was sending His apostles out into a world that was full of darkness and hatred, a world in which men hate the truth and everything else that reveals the darkness of their hearts. And this ugly situation is even worse today. But the message of the Kingdom must be preached by the Church (Christians) who are distinguished by love, and who must be united in their mission. Otherwise, the body of believers and their witness would sooner or later be destroyed or rendered totally ineffective; and souls that would have been saved would be lost eternally.

Dear reader, does it often bother you that in many Churches and fellowships today, leaders and members are at daggers drawn – quarrelling and tearing each other apart? Would you not sincerely spend more time praying for the Church for which Christ died?

PRAYER: Lord, let there be love shared among us and let it fill our nation, in Jesus Name.