The one thing Jesus told all of His disciples to do so the world would know we were His people

Welcome to episode 227.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 227. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I am going to continue and probably try to bring this to an end, the unity lesson or message. I don't know if this is something that you need to hear. I mean, I don't know, it's something that I'm just— as I look out at the body of Christ, I just see different factions, and it almost looks like that we're fighting and warring against each other. And I just want to jump up and down and say, guys, just get in the Word of God. Just love one another. Just do what John, the Apostle John, says, you know, to love one another. If we can just choose to love, and I don't want to get all squishy and gushy, but love is incredibly important. Let's read what 1 Peter says. 1 Peter 4:8, and above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. And the word fervent, the only other time that word was used in the New Testament was in Acts 12:5, and this also included Peter, but this was when they were praying for Peter. And it says Peter is— Acts 12:5, Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And that fervent is without ceasing. It's translated without ceasing. So if you want to take a twist on fervent prayer, because how many people ever really use that word? And in fact, in the New Testament, that word was really only used twice. Above all things, have fervent love. Let's just call it without ceasing. And where Peter says, and above all things, have unceasing— no, unceasing, without ceasing love. For one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. And the next verse I want to go to is 1 John 4:15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. John had a grip on love that, in all honesty, I do not have, and I would argue that probably not many people have the understanding that John had. On love. But this is something that I think the church, we need to just embrace, that we need to get the love of God inside of us and outside of us and for everybody that we come in contact with. And I know it's difficult. I, I mean, I struggle with this probably more than you do because I am constantly activated when someone pulls out in front of me or does something stupid in a parking lot— and I know I talk mostly about my vehicle, but I drive a lot. It's a real thing, and I know that you and I are probably similar but different, and you probably have struggles when you look at— because we're looking with our eyes and we react with our body. But spiritually, the love of God is what is going to change the world. The love of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son God is love and God is a giver. And I want to go to the scripture that I memorized, but I'm going to read it because I don't want to miss anything. And it's in 1 Corinthians 13. It's the love chapter. And I'm going to start— I memorized 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, but I want to start at 1 Corinthians 13:1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or clinging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. It is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek his own, is not provoked, thinks no does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. So the rest of the time together today, I just want you to think about how you can be more like God with your love one to another. Next, I want to go to the Gospel of John chapter 13 and starting in verse 31. So when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going you cannot come,' so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. Now I know that's a lot of scripture reading, and I know if you're anything like me, this may be a little bit of a struggle. It, uh, to be honest, this one is a little bit of a struggle. I really didn't want to talk about this because I don't have a real deep grasp. I mean, I do love people, And I don't— I try really hard not to be hateful or to be condemning, and I really try to be, but I'm human, and when I start acting in my humanity, it is very easy to fall into a non-love posture. It just is. I know I probably shouldn't be that way, but I am that way. As I read, as I spend time with God, and as I read the Word, and as I talk to the Holy Spirit, It's a whole lot easier to love his people the more time I spend with God. And it, I mean, it's just as simple as that. And I believe part of the reason, and here's my soapbox moment, I just believe that we as the church are not in love with the Word of God. We do not spend enough time in the Bible. We do not spend enough time with God himself or his Holy Spirit. It is just a simple fact. I just believe that we are just inundated and we're distracted and we're constantly— we're either watching TV or we're listening to the news or we're listening to a podcast or we're doing something that's actively keeping us or keeping our mind off of God. I'm just as guilty as you. I've got a job. I work 8 to 10 hours a day and I do this podcast and so I I'm not coming to you as a person super enlightened in this subject. I am coming to you as this person that is taking imperfect action as I follow after the perfect example. And Jesus is our perfect example, and he gave us this new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. That's pretty simple. It's pretty basic. It's a new commandment that you just love people. Love God and love people. And I, I think I've talked about that multiple times, but if not, we'll talk about it right now. When I was going through college, I was not the most dedicated college student. I didn't even really honestly know why I was there. I was trying to get a degree because that's what my parents wanted me to do, so I did it, and I'm glad I did. But what I found when I was in college, I was always looking for a shortcut. I was always looking for— back then we had Cliff Notes. I don't even know if that's a thing anymore. You had to read a book, but there was also a small book If War and Peace was 875 pages, the Cliff Notes was maybe 70 pages. And I would always go for the Cliff Notes. I was always looking for the summary. If you wanna summarize the whole Old Testament, I think Jesus did a wonderful job of that. Imagine that. Jesus was asked a question by a lawyer, I guess a Pharisee, or, you know, in the Bible times, there were Pharisees and Sadducees. But this Pharisee, which is a lawyer, asked him a question. You pick this up in Matthew 22:35. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Now I just want you to think about that in four verses, Matthew 22:37-40, and I know they weren't numbered when it was written, but for us there's four verses and hang all the Law and the Prophets. Now that is pretty, pretty, pretty big deal. That is the Old Testament hanging on these 4 verses. And it's actually, to be honest, it's 3 verses because verse 40, "On these 2 commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." That was just a summary. So on 3 verses hang the whole Old Testament. I'm going to cliff note that. It's love God and love people. If we can learn to love God and love his people, I think everything else is just going to work its way out. And that is my unity message. I'm going to end the unity lesson. We need to have the kind of love that God wants us to have one to another. And I'm not talking about just some kind of phony plastic banana kind of love. I'm talking about truly looking at people like they are part of God. If you want to do something for God, you need to do something for his people. And I just want to challenge you during these holiday seasons. I know we just got through with Thanksgiving, but Christmas is coming up and New Year's, and it just seems like during these times people tend to be more giving, they tend to be more loving. And if you can concentrate on the love of God and concentrate on loving your family and loving your friends, and then loving the people that you come in contact with, who God puts you in contact with, maybe just randomly. But just try to have a little more consciousness of the love one to another. I'm self kind of rambling. I could go on another tangent and chase another rabbit, but let's pray. God, I thank you so much for your word. God, I thank you, Jesus, for coming and living a life that I could not live and dying a death that I should have died. And God, I thank you for your perfection as you did that, as you walked through life. But God, I thank you specifically today for the love that you showed as you walked on this earth and as you died on this earth. You died for me. You died for this listener. And God, you died for anyone who would say, "I believe that you are the Son of God." God, we thank you for that. Lord, we pray that Holy Spirit, that you would help us to understand your kind of love and help us to better use your love when we deal with your people. God, we thank you. We love you. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.no-doubt-no-fear-only-believe.com. Www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com