1 John 3:23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
There is one commandment given in two parts: believe and love. These two commands summarize Jesus’ teachings. The author, John, in this short document and in the first three chapters has succinctly summarized the gospel message. These two parts are necessarily linked together. In order to love others, we must have faith in Christ. Likewise, we must believe in Christ in order for love to flow through us. If we say we believe but do not love, our belief is invalidated. Love that is sourced by anything else than faith will deteriorate into selfishness and conditioned love. If we attempt to love people out of our own strength, we will often fail or be frustrated because people are difficult to love sometimes. They will disappoint us, betray us, ignore us, and many other things. At best, we may even come to the point of merely tolerating to be in their presence. The only way we can let love triumph in our daily lives is to put ourselves completely at the altar of consecration and commitment before Christ and say, Here I am, use me as a channel of your love. In terms of theology, holiness in love comes only as a result of sanctification of life.
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