DAILY TEXT, Today Friday June 24, 2022, Let's keep loving one another (1 John 4:7).

DAILY TEXT, Today's Friday June 24, 2022

Let's Examine the Scriptures Every Day 2022

Friday June 24, 2022

Let's keep loving one another (1 John 4:7).

In the Gospel that the apostle John wrote, love is mentioned more times than in the other three Gospels combined. What he wrote makes it clear that love should motivate everything a Christian does (1 John 4:10, 11). That was a lesson that Juan himself took a while to learn. As a young man, Juan did not always act with love. For example, on a certain occasion, Jesus and his disciples were going to Jerusalem through Samaria, and in a Samaritan town they were not received with hospitality. John proposed to send down fire from heaven and destroy all its inhabitants (Luke 9:52-56). On another occasion, he and his brother James apparently convinced his mother to ask Jesus to give them important positions alongside him in the Kingdom. When the other apostles found out, they were furious (Matt. 20:20, 21, 24). Despite the mistakes John made, Jesus loved him (John 21:7). w21.01 8, 9 paras. 3. 4

What should we not do?

We can also show our love for the brothers by not doing certain things. For example, we should not be easily offended by what they say. Let's think about what happened some time before the death of Jesus. He told his disciples that in order to have eternal life they must eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6:53-57). Many were scandalized and abandoned him. But his true friends, including Juan, were loyal and stayed with him. They didn't understand what he meant and were probably puzzled, but they didn't take offense or assume he was wrong. Rather, they trusted him because they knew he always told the truth (John 6:60, 66-69). How important it is that we are not easily offended by what our brothers say, but that we give them the benefit of the doubt (Prov. 18:13; Eccl. 7:9).

Why should we not hate our brothers?

John also warned us that we should not hate our brothers. If we don't listen, we expose ourselves to being manipulated by Satan (1 John 2:11; 3:15). The same thing happened to some at the end of the first century. Satan did all he could to foment hatred and division among God's servants. By the time Juan wrote to them, some with that same satanic spirit had crept into the congregation. One of them was Diotrephes, who was causing serious divisions in a congregation. He had no respect for the traveling overseers sent by the governing body. He was so arrogant that he even tried to kick out of the congregation those who wanted to treat brothers he did not like with hospitality (3 John 9, 10). Today, Satan continues to try in every way to use the "divide and rule" tactic.

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