A Common Deception
When you’re outside of love you’re outside of the will of God, no matter how justified you feel you are.

First John 2:9-10 puts it this way: “Whoever says he is in the Light and [yet] hates his brother…is in darkness even until now. Whoever loves his brother…abides (lives) in the Light, and in It or in him there is no occasion for stumbling or cause for error or sin” (The Amplified Bible).

Most of us would deny the fact that we hate anyone because hate is such a strong term. But the truth is, if we’re not exercising the love of God toward the people around us, we are hating them. There is no in between, only varying degrees of intensity.

Thus, when we fail to act in love, we’re in darkness. The sad thing about it is, most of the time we don’t even know it. It is, as Proverbs 14:12 says, the “…way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

You don’t wake up and think, “Well, I believe I’ll be wrong today.” No, it often comes under the guise of helping someone. For example, have you ever felt compelled to correct someone “in order to help them”? You may think, This may seem harsh, but it’s okay because they’ll be better off in the long run.

I’ve even seen people in the ministry criticize, step on or hurt those they work with in order to accomplish a certain ministry goal. It’s never all right to disregard people, no matter how just the cause. Even though you cannot keep some people from being offended, it should never occur because of your insensitivity or laziness where the love walk is concerned.

If you are not endeavoring to grow and walk in love with the people around you, you are in darkness and you are deceived. Without love, whatever you do will fall short of the glory of God. And without the glory of God in what you do, you might as well not bother to do it at all.

Choose Your World
Apart from the influence of God, the world has no love! All the “love” it has to offer is full of greed and possessiveness, interwoven with lust.

But you are no longer a citizen of darkness. You are no longer a citizen of this world. You are a citizen of the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.

Yes, you still live in this world which is under the influence of the wicked one. It’s still knocking at your door, putting pressure on you to follow its selfish pattern of living.

The question is, which world will you yield to? Will you be an ambassador of love or will you adapt to the hateful world around you?

If you choose to be an ambassador of love, you’ll have an awesome impact on the world around you. What kind of impact? The same kind that Jesus had when He walked the earth. With every deed of kindness, every gesture of compassion, every word of love, you’ll bring God’s very presence on the scene.

So stand up on the inside and say, “As of this day, I make a decision that I’m walking in love. I’ll not put myself first. I’ll put others before me. I’ll stop criticizing and start reaching out in compassion.”

Then stir up the Holy Spirit inside you by praying in the spirit. Let Him show you how to truly love. He’s so creative. He can tell you how to be loving to the people who give you the hardest time of all.

He’ll give you the power to go and do something nice for them. Do you know what will happen when you do that? They’ll probably be ugly to you again. But the power of love will enable you to rise above it and it won’t matter.

What will matter, however, is that something eternal will have happened. The very love and presence of Almighty God will have invaded that situation. And that love can do things nothing else can do. Love breaks chains. Delivers captives. Heals wounds. Brings people together.

Love makes the impossible possible. Because love never fails.