“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). It doesn’t get any stronger than that; we are commanded to love one another and not only love but to love as Christ loves us! The apostle James taught us that: “If ye really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well” (James 2:8). Loving our neighbor is a royal law, a cardinal command! This love of God is an unconditional love.

Although we received the love nature of God when we were born again (Rom 5:5) unconditional love does not come naturally to us. This means that we must develop or grow this love nature that we have; we need to be intentional about love and make decisions to put love into practice. Time spent with God who is love (1 John 4:8) and reading, studying and meditating on love scriptures will help us to do that.

Immediately after Jesus gave the command to love, in the gospel according to John, he also said that it was in this love for our neighbor that others would recognize us as Christians (John 13:34-35).

When we put love into practice then we will draw others to Christ. If the church universal started truly acting in love there would be a mighty revival. Love is a powerful force and in 1 Corinthians 13:2 we are told that without it we are nothing.

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Have you ever noticed that there is no prize for starting, the only reward is for the one that finishes the race (1 Cor 9:24)? At the end of his life for Christ Paul could say: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7; KJV) and he eagerly looked forward to his heavenly reward.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:1-2; KJV). Paul paints a picture for us of the heavenly hosts cheering us on. As we look back at all the amazing men and women of God who have gone before us, we should be encouraged to focus on Jesus and put aside all the distractions and sins to serve him on this earth.

We need the same heavenly focus that Jesus had and need to know that we don’t run in our own strength but his (Phil 2:13; Phil 4:13). Paul exhorted us to press on, lay hold of all God has for us and be disciplined (Phil 3:12-14; 1 Cor 9:25). We are God’s salt and lights in this world (Matt 5:13-14), he so wants to work through us, to bless us in our earthly journey (Eph 3:20) and to bring us to that eternal reward in heaven. Let's cooperate and press in; the rewards are great and the journey amazing.

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The biggest cause of division in the church is strife which is often caused by pride. In the prayer of Jesus in John 17 he asked 4 times for unity in the believers. In the book of Acts, we read many times of how the apostles met together in one accord. The result of this was that their prayers were powerfully answered; they saw many miracles and exponential growth in the church.

There are many times in the epistles where Paul encouraged the church to live harmoniously and he told them how to do this. An example is found Phillipians 2:1-5. Paul asked them to live in harmony with the same mind purpose and love. He then told them to avoid strife and selfishness and: "in the true spirit of humility let each regard others as better than and superior to himself”. He then encouraged them to have the same attitude of humility that Jesus did.

I believe this spirit of humility is crucial for unity in the church, along with love, which enables reconciliation and also causes us to forget our petty differences and focus on Jesus and all those things which unite us.

When this happens there is no room for criticality and discord and the devil will have no way of causing strife and the church will be united and strong.

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 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20; KJV). We often read this verse and regard it as an invitation to the lost to receive Jesus. However, if you think about it, this was written to the church, to believers! In fact, this was written to the lukewarm church, people who were sat on the fence, with one foot in the world and one in the church.

When I read this, I am reminded of the parable of the sower (Matt 13: 3-9; 13:18-23). In this parable good seed was sown into different soils. The seed was the word of God, the soils, different people. For some the word went right over their heads and meant nothing. Other people got excited about what they heard but when the slightest persecution or pressure came into their lives because of their new beliefs they drew back. For some other people, the worries of life and the headlong pursuit of things and stuff squeezed time for and thoughts of the word, from their lives. However, some people received, studied and meditated the word as a precious jewel, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring revelation and produce change, good fruit, in their lives (Gal 5:22-23).

I know which soil I want to be, what about you?

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In Matthew 7:15 Jesus warns us of false prophets that are dressed up as sheep but are really wolves. Paul warned the Ephesian church leaders of the same sort of thing, how people like savage wolves would come in to the church to sow discord. (Acts 20:29) How do we know the wolves? Well, Jesus said we would spot them by their fruit (Matt 7:16). In that passage, in Matthews Gospel, Jesus went on to say that good trees don’t bear bad fruit, nor do bad tress bear good fruit. That’s pretty clear.

What’s on the inside of us, in our hearts, is going to come out in our words and actions at some point (Matt 12:34; Matt 7:20), even though we may try to cover things up.

It's the Holy Spirit that changes us and causes good fruit to develop in our lives (Gal 5:22-23; KJV): “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Let’s humble ourselves before God and allow his Spirit to change us and cause his fruit to characterize our lives. Ask God to do this, he will if we allow.

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