John 13:35

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Yesterday’s devotion ended this way.

“In my past there have been discussions about love being the target and our obedience is the aim and release of our arrow, the cupid concept. Since the small red center of the target is perfect love then hitting anywhere on the target is acceptable even if we don’t hit the red bullseye.

Allow me to use that analogy to help our aim. Get closer to the target.”

The issue of fellowship isn’t just that we need to love one another but to show the world that our differences do not diminish our ability to love one another as Jesus loves us. It is a demonstration of affection which attracts unbelievers to Jesus, not us.

James 4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

James begins this chapter with the right words and then examples the worst traits of man which many of us have already overcome. Murder, covetousness, adultery, and rebellion are not part of our lives but then he quotes an issue that goes to the core of the problems that lay hidden in fellowship.

James 4:5

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

Within my soul there is the awareness that just because He dwells in me, it is even more obvious I am not like Him in similitude. I judge myself and in doing so, I judge everyone that is like me, perfectly human and imperfectly holy.

That is the lie of the enemy. We are not here to change one another but rather to draw closer in order to love one another better today than we did yesterday. Each step of faith is a forward progression towards being closer to Jesus and because of His indwelling, closer to one another.

The lost can only see Jesus in us if we can see Jesus in one another. Jesus was all about reaching out to the lost and He has not changed in His attempt to love them. He just does it through us now. Our pettiness blocks that vision for the lost. They will never be attracted to Jesus when we quarrel among ourselves.

Being right isn’t righteousness.

Romans 8:3

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Hebrews 4:15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans he describes the essence of sin, that man is born in sin. The writer of Hebrews is writing about the concept of sin, that yielding to temptation is sin.

God became man in order to show that it is possible to carry the burden of sin without yielding to its demands. Jesus had to carry the burden of sin to the cross in order to be the perfect sacrifice to put an end to sin as a barrier to having a relationship with God. It was a judicial act putting sin itself on trial and putting an end to sin.

We do not go to hell because of sin. Eternal life comes to us through faith in the atoning sacrifice of the man participating in God the Father’s plan to redeem His children. He lost them to disobedience and redeemed them by obedience of His Son Jesus Christ.

Psalm 69:13

But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

We are not saved by our faithfulness but rather by His.

If the concept of sin has been destroyed then what is the purpose of our faithfulness?

The simple answer is to show our love for God who saved us from ourselves.

In my past there have been discussions about love being the target and our obedience is the aim and release of our arrow, the cupid concept. Since the small red center of the target is perfect love then hitting anywhere on the target is acceptable even if we don’t hit the red bullseye.

Allow me to use that analogy to help our aim. Get closer to the target.