Loving Your Family

remain-in-his-love

Malachi 2:10
10 “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

How much have we, as a family of believers, created strife and turmoil within our spiritual family? We all know very well that during the holiday season, many of us get together with our families, usually for the only time throughout the year. It is generally great to see one another and reconnect after not having see each other for a long time. But then, someone gets offended and the whole party gets ruined just because two members of the family voted for a different person during the latest elections. Seriously? Are our family bonds and love so fragile as to be affected by ideals of the outside world?

Malachi points out that we are all bound by blood and Spirit. We all have one father in birth, Adam and we all have one father in Spirit, God. We are all one; not one of us is better than the other. Furthermore, the covenant that he is talking about here is the covenant of Israel where Moses received the commandments from God and the people made a covenant with God, promising to live in peace and love with one another. James 2 reminds us:

8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well.

Are we doing well? Why has the Christian community become a doctrinal competition and a game of who knows the scriptures more? Why don’t we remember that god has created each of us with a specific measure of faith? The outside world looks at the Christian calamity of the denominational race and thinks, “it’s better if I don’t get involved.” Who would want to join a family that is always bickering and competing with each other? We call Jesus the Prince of Peace but we cannot live at peace with each other! In 1 John 4, the Apostle speaks of love and God’s charge to us as agents of that love:

16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Jesus came to this earth to show this perfection of love as an example for us. As we meet with friends and family this year, maybe for the first time in years, may we remember the reason for the season: love.


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