Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Love Like an Ocean

Dan and I at the Isle of Palms a few years ago.

Peace like a river requires love like an ocean.

Being a peacemaker automatically calls us to love God and to love others. Remember this, loves works no ill to our neighbor.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10

In Scripture, I am called to love my husband, to love my children and to teach others to do so as well (Titus 2). Throughout the Old and the New Testaments we are commanded to love our neighbor. I Peter 1:22 admonishes believers to love each other with a pure heart fervently. Finally, in Matthew 5:44, we are told to love our enemies.

Can you think of anyone we are not supposed to love? I cannot, and I know that there is not anyone that God does not love. But do you know what that love looks like?

Love is the fulfilling of the law so we need to look no further than the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20) to see exactly what it means to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. My challenge to you: read these commandments with love in mind. For example, loving God with all my heart looks like taking a Sabbath each week to spend the day with God worshipping Him. I like to call Sunday my "date day" with God. Ask yourself this: "Does my heart long to spend time worshipping my Savior?"

If I love my neighbor as myself, would I think of stealing from them or being dishonest with them in anyway? No, a heart of love demands honesty. An honest relationship would involve being sincere, authentic and genuine. Ask yourself this: "Are my relationships built on honesty and integrity?"

When I think about loving the way God wants me to love, the love chapter also comes to my mind. My husband taught me years ago to read I Corinthians 13:4-7 out loud and to put my name where I see the word charity as well as where the word charity is implied. This is exactly what "loving how God wants me to love" looks like.

God does not leave us in the dark when it comes to knowing how to love others. More importantly, God does not leave us powerless to be able to love others. Jesus is our shining light as well as the source of the power to shine for Him. Through the Holy Spirit, He offers us the resource of Himself to love our family, our church family, our neighbor, and even our enemies.

Love is an important part of the fruit of the Spirit. It is a necessary virtue in peaceful relationships. It is all a part of the jam. (See previous blog.)

I have learned that I can choose to walk in the flesh, full of hatred and anger in my heart, or I can choose to walk in the Spirit filled with the love of God flowing through me to those around me.

Practical tip # 2

Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 out loud with your name written in the place of charity and where charity is implied. Ask God to love people through you especially those where there seems to be a lack of peace in the relationship.

This is just one more step toward becoming a peacemaker.

___________ suffereth long, and is kind; __________ envieth not; _________ vaunteth not itself, (________________) is not puffed up,

 (________________) Doth not behave itself unseemly, (________________) seeketh not her own, (________________)  is not easily provoked, (________________) thinketh no evil;

 (________________) Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 (________________) Beareth all things, (________________) believeth all things, (________________) hopeth all things, (________________) endureth all things.