Busted!

Today's verse for 4/20 is 1 John 4:20, "If someone says, 'I love God,' but hates a christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we can't love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?" (NLT)

This verse is hard to swallow. As a matter of fact, the more I chew on it, the more I'm inclined to feel busted. That's right, I'm busted! I can't tell you how many times I've thought or made a comment along these lines: "I'm good with God, but it's people that I have a problem with!"

While I cannot think of anyone that I actually hate, I'm certainly not as fond of some people as I am of others. There may be some people I don't feel inclined to spend my free time with; they annoy me or irk me in some way. In that case, I'm ashamed to realize that God is talking about me in this verse. As much as I would like to, I can't rationalize that this verse does not apply to me since I don't actually "hate" people, but I just don't "like" some as well as others. Yep, I'm busted.

What I like about this translation is that it is one of the few that includes the word "christian" brother or sister in it's content. Christians are called to a higher standard of living. That comes from having the Holy Spirit living within us to direct us in the best way we should live, from reading God's word for wisdom and knowledge, and from knowing him personally in our prayer life. We are held accountable to love other christians well; to go to them when we just can't get along with them and try to work out our differences. Non-christians don't always get this. Actually, not all christians get this either. I haven't always gotten it in the past, but I want to correct that in the future.

When I say that I love God, I want it to be on his terms. I have to wonder if all of us really love an invisible God when we can't even love those around us. I need to seek God's forgiveness and grace to help me love them as he does and I need to reconcile with anyone that I may have a problem with. I don't want to be a liar in God's eyes, so I'm asking for his help to love well, horizontally, so I can truly love him, vertically.