How would you describe Christian love in action, especially towards your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

Before coming to Christ, I was a hardened individual. I had thousands of sexual relationships (I exaggerate to prove my point) and was a foul-mouthed druggie/drunk. I was a fighter ~ I was one toughened sinner. I had never "been in love," nor felt that I had loved. I used people. I hated people.

After coming to Christ, and attending my first church, I recall a fellow believer coming to my home and upon seeing her and her husband at my doorstep, my heart was filled with joy and I reached out and hugged that individual! This was so not like me. I never hugged, except in the sexual arena. Yet my heart was filled with joy for this individual - I had known her for a few months, yet felt a shared joy in being part of the family of God now and this person was part of that family. It was a revolutionary experience for me. She and her husband were now part of MY family... my spiritual family! We had a bond!

18 years after having come to faith, I still experience that joy and peace and love when around true believers. I can step foot into any church and have that bond with that known stranger because of the love of Christ in our souls.

YET, here is a revolutionary thought. Sometimes, I feel, If I were to disclose to my fellow brethren that I was a spiritual prostitute and I snorted cocaine and went to jail a time or two and told them about who I was before Christ, I believe that I would be classified differently. As it is, I am NOT a tea social type of person. I don't sit in social circles and fold my napkin properly, nor do I care. I don't submit to human rules or trains of thought as to what is correct or not. I enjoy my fellow brethren from the heart. Whether or not they agree with my social etiquette or not. I am me and I worship the same Christ. THAT is why we must be honest with ourselves... if we had a tattooed biker walk into our midst, would we feel comfortable and easily adjust our train of thought and our nicely organized set-up to welcome that individual or would they feel like an outsider?

This is an excellent question ~ we all would do well to contemplate on that portion of scripture. It would be nice to look at our churches and see what audience we are reaching and wonder if we are open to reaching a different audience. Would the spiritual prostitute feel readily welcomed and perhaps even accepted as a new Christian sister/brother? OR would they feel uncomfortable and feel unworthy and feel that they fall short because of OUR expectations.

As a Christian, I have a responsibility. When I go to church, it is not about me... it is about Christ and we are Christ in this world. We have a duty to the brethren. When a believer refuses to go to church, they fail to realize that they are part of the body and the body suffers when one of their members suffer. IT affects the body. When we go to church, do we go to be filled or to fill? We can bless others and be blessed in return. We have a responsibility to one another.

Blessings,

~God's Canvas ;0))

Funny I was just thinking of this this morning.

I know of a Christian who spouts love love love. Its all about love of the brethren.

Yet this person never goes to see any of the brethren who are in the hospital or nursing homes, never comes to my house though invited on many occasions. Never comes to a study weekend we host. We live a little over an hour away.

So one can spout love all they want, as long as it doesn't put them out any.

Phileo love is a warm love--that is how we are to view our brethren--they are family. When they are sick go visit them or send them a card or make a phone call. Or not even when they are sick--just drop then a note.

Love is not convenient, its not often on your terms, but on the terms of the occasion.

We need to think of our brethren as family and include them in our lives on a regular basis. Remember God is the one who does the calling to Him, so if one is called, then God saw something special in that person--and that is what we need to recognize.

We don't all have the same personalities. Look at Peter and Thomas. I am sure in the beginning they grated on each other. Peter--"lets do this right now," and Thomas: "I think we need to slow down and think this through for a week or two before we move ahead." Can you imagine the frustration? But God chose both of them because their personalities were different--all 12 were different.

Some base the 12 (Disciples, Tribes, stones in the breastplate) as how they reason that their are 12 basic personality types. There is a whole study on this and it sounds reasonable to me.

In the Kingdom when the world of mankind comes back in the resurrection and is under the rulership of Jesus and his Bride--they will have to be dealt with. We are promised to be kings and priests--the job of the priest is to bring one into harmony with God.

It is thought that in the kingdom that each of the Church members will get those of the same personalities to deal with and help up the highway of holiness (Isa. 35). because they can understand how they think.

But in this age, we have to learn to get along with all the personality types--it helps us to grow and become stronger and more sympathetic.

Hi Grey Tower,

How strange! I was listening to a teaching on this very thing, so I'm sending you the link:-

http://media.cedarview.org/sermons/message.php?vid...

He was bringing out about relationship with others affecting our relationship with God. When our Lord instructed us on how we should pray, and He says.....forgive us as we forgive others, and then after the AMEN, He goes on to the disciples about one particular emphasis that He wants to indelibly mark down in our hearts....Jesus didn't emphasise 'daily bread' or 'temptation', but rather our relationship with one another (Matthew 6:12-15). In other words the Fathers forgiveness places upon us a challenge (like when Jesus gives the parable of the individual who was indebted to his lord, and owed an enormous amount to - he asked his lord to forgive him, and then went away, met up with one of his brethren who owed him, and grabbed him by the throat demanding full payment, and when he asked for forgiveness, he refused, and threw him in prison until every red cent was paid!).

The link should take you right to the very sermon/teaching, but if it doesn't; The video I want to show you is the last one of 4 on 'Sinning against the body of Christ' (the preacher is wearing a turquoise checkered shirt), and it is found in the category of 'The Book of Malachi: Prophetic words For A Love For God Starting To Grow Cold'

Hope all Christians enjoy this as in my opinion it is so essential.

I do not know how to describe Christian Love yet...I was involved with a cult for 41 years of my life, and now that I am free from them, I do not have a "base of understanding" to know what true Christian Love is really about.

Now that I am away from the false love in that organization, I am having trouble accepting Christian love from others, and understanding it, because I have never experienced it.

I would like to know what it is, to have "brotherly love" in the sense that God meant it to be.

I will watch the answers and try to learn.

That passage of scripture shows the importance of relationships and how the attitudes and values within the early Church were at odds with Roman society. This set the Church apart as unique. They were not snobs! They treated slaves with as much love as the apostles! They knew that a life of self-absorption prevented them from finding opportunities to minister to the needs of others. How we need to learn those lessons today, especially in our self-centred Western society! The tragedy is also that centuries of evil - done in the name of Christ - has ruined the reputation of Christianity for many non-believers. The crusades, the Inquisitions etc - those are the antithesis of what Paul was urging first century Christians to demonstrate.

Well, to counteract such unChristian evil, read this letter about aid to Tecuci, Romania, by Mission Moldova. This demonstrates Christian love in action, displayed to all, and not just to people within a certain denomination!

"Dear brothers and sisters,

A few weeks ago, in the Eastern part of Romania, there were strong winds and snowfalls, for days in a row. The heavy snow blocked the roads, trains and completely paralyzed the activity within the cities and villages. The snow in some of these places is 5 meters high. Many people are helpless, sick, old and are isolated in their homes without anyone to care for them, clean their yards or buy food for them. Every day when they see the weather warming up, they think with horror to the moment when all this snow will melt. That could cause major flooding in places we had never thought are in danger of being flooded. Yet, God knows everything; all these things are in His hands and all we have to do is to trust Him completely.

The localities near Tecuci that have been affected by snow are HinÅ£eşti, Cărăpceşti, Furceni, Corod,GriviÅ£a, Cosmeşti, and also Tecuci. Following this situation, Christian Aid Ministries in Suceava and Cluj were sensitive to the needs of people affected by snow. They brought food, shoes, blankets, medicines and even some money for some of the families, to buy wood. A group from our church distributed in these remote areas, support to the families in need. Because some of these places were very difficult to be accessed by car, and we got stuck, we had to carry by hand all the aids to these families. Upon returning to Tecuci, the car’s oil broke because of the difficult conditions.

When we got to those places, we saw much more snow than we have imagined snow as high as a house. Many families had their animals blocked in stables, some even have died, thus losing an important source of living. We met firefighters working side by side with the families, helping them build paths through the snow. Many of the families they have helped are simple people, sick, elderly men and women, families with many children, and what we have offered have been a great help for them all.

We believe that the support offered to these families should not stop here, but continue, because many of them will soon face the threat of flooding following the melting of the snow. Also, we think that for the village of Hintesti, the Lord will open a door for the Gospel. This first contact with these people gave us no chance to open a dialogue, to tie relationships with them. Some of these people were not only too concerned about the situation in which they found themselves, but were indifferent or even angry at God for what happened. We pray that God will work and use us as He knows best."

It has to be towards your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, Christians tend to be bigoted toward anyone that's not a Christian. Some are decent yes, but on a whole Christianity is a very intolerant organisation.

We say that Christ taught all men to so treat any other person as their own brother and to share all that they may have at that time with them. Amen

So let it be the norm for now and for ever .

How would you describe Christian love in action?

Don't ask the Jah's Witnesses

I'm no scholar but this scripture might help - Luke 10:27 He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'"

Natural.