16You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.18“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. John 15:16-19 (NLT)
Love and hate. Jesus speaks always of LOVE or HATE. You never read a passage in scripture in which Jesus says something like, “If you think you might like me or maybe think that you want to be saved then you perhaps might want to listen to a little of what I have to say. Now I don’t want to offend you, and I’m sorry if I might, but….” NOPE – That’s not my Jesus! Thank God! (I mean it, literally, THANK YOU GOD!) Jesus IS Truth – He lives Truth and He speaks Truth. It is impossible for Him to be or act in any other way than with His immutable attributes – Truth and Grace.
So What of Love – and what of Hate? Well, the short answer is PICK ONE! Wait didn’t I hear this somewhere before? Yes! It was our old friend Joshua who, by the power of Holy Spirit taught his people, “14“So fear the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD alone. 15But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” But wait now, that’s the Old Testament, that’s not about Jesus… is it?
Love and hate. Jesus speaks always of LOVE or HATE. You never read a passage in scripture in which Jesus says something like, “If you think you might like me or maybe think that you want to be saved then you perhaps might want to listen to a little of what I have to say. Now I don’t want to offend you, and I’m sorry if I might, but….” NOPE – That’s not my Jesus! Thank God! (I mean it, literally, THANK YOU GOD!) Jesus IS Truth – He lives Truth and He speaks Truth. It is impossible for Him to be or act in any other way than with His immutable attributes – Truth and Grace.
So What of Love – and what of Hate? Well, the short answer is PICK ONE! Wait didn’t I hear this somewhere before? Yes! It was our old friend Joshua who, by the power of Holy Spirit taught his people, “14“So fear the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD alone. 15But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” But wait now, that’s the Old Testament, that’s not about Jesus… is it?
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