LOVE OTHERS & LIVE RESPONSIBLY

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God's family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

As a disciple of Jesus, our purpose for living should be evident in how we love and how we work. Love genuinely, work diligently, and live purposefully. As Christians our lives are a billboard for what it means to follow Jesus as Lord. Love for one another is vital in the church and our love should be growing. Our love for each other will not be growing if our amazement at God's love for us is not growing. Paul urges us in this passage to love each other more and more.

This "more and more love" is also on display in the way we go about our day-to-day life and by the way we work. We aren't only to love those in the church, but also those outside the church. One of the simplest ways that we can love the world around us is by working diligently in our jobs. Our genuine love and diligent work must all flow from our increasing love for God. His love for us gives our lives purpose.

Our purpose in life is for the good news of Jesus to ring out from us. Brotherly love must be practically expressed. Paul contends that this love is not just a concept or a feeling, it is practical. True love is evidenced by what we do. Practically then, we love one another when we take time to sit with a grieving friend. We bend down to tie the shoelaces of a child. We work to spotlight the good things others are doing. We forgive an offense. We help to clean up a neighbor's yard after a storm. We take time to listen, to weep, to share a joy. We take food to someone who is sick or grieving. We take the kids of a single mother to give her a night off. We take time to check the facts before we pass on gossip. We recognize that people have bad days and cut them some slack.

True love is practical. "Love others" means we will aspire to live quiet lives, mind our own affairs, and work with our hands so the world will see that we are Christians. All people will know we are Jesus' disciples because we love one another. There is another way we show this love. Walk properly before those who are not Christians and be dependent on no one. Loving others goes far deeper and much further than we sometimes think.

Everything we do, every Monday through Sunday, must show our love for God and for one another. As Christians, we are all individuals with our own God-given tasks and responsibilities, but we are one body that is called to live and work in partnership with one another, which is much more productive and profitable than toiling alone. Let us love as Christ loves us today!!!

Father thank You for this day and thank You for this simple truth that impacts our lives: two are better than one. Thank You for the privilege we have, as the body of Christ, to support and encourage one another in the work You have given us to do. Lord, open the windows of heaven and let Your abundant blessings fall upon my friends and family today. Lord, give us grace and wisdom to hold the things of this world lightly and to consider the needs of others before our own. Lord, unite Your people together in the bond of peace and may we be a living testimony to the goodness and grace of God and work together for the furtherance of the gospel today.

Father, we love You. Amen.