Skip to main content

The Resemblance of Love

Last October, there was excitement among royal watchers as Princess Charlotte delighted the crowds in Canada with a rare public appearance. The toddler princess showed off her walking and even some dancing on her first royal engagement during William and Kate’s tour of Canada.


This excited the tabloid media who quickly informed us that the little girl bears a striking resemblance to her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II. We were treated to photographs of the Queen when she was the same age as Charlotte. One newspaper said Charlotte has a cheeky grin like her great-granny.

 The media often finds news where it does not exist. It is surely not a surprise that Princess Charlotte resembles her great-granny because they are related! Those who belong to the same family resemble one another. What is true for our physical family is also true for our spiritual family. Those who belong to God resemble God. Here is how John puts it:
By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practise righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother [1 John 3:10]
Just like Princess Charlotte and her great-granny, those of us who share the same spiritual relationship with God resemble God by not living in sin and not not practising hatred. God cannot live in you and you continue a lifestyle of sin and hatred towards other believers. Change must happen to you!

God generally commands us love everyone, but here John focuses on loving fellow followers of Jesus (“his brother”). Why does John narrow it down to loving followers of Jesus? Because John’s main point is that if we are children of God then we are a new spiritual family who must love those who share the same Father! We are a family, so we must let it show!

May be you have been hurt badly by another follower of Jesus. If you are honest you have read 1 Corinthians 13, and you know deep in your heart you carry bitterness, animosity and hatred towards others. You are failing to obey God in this area. The answer to your predicament is to recognise that hatred is not who you are. God now lives in your heart. So confess that sin to God and allow God to transform you and use that difficult situation to make you more like Him.

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2017
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Blessing of our Christian Identity

The prospect of my true identity being revealed in Christ on the last day means that I am not faced with the choice of either realizing and actualizing all the aspects of my self now or having them lie dormant forever. My identity can be messy, confusing, and even frustrating to me in the present in a way that does not signal an ultimate or final denial of who I am. By the grace of God I am what I am, and what I shall be has not yet been made known (1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 John 3:2). In a late modern culture that rhymes complete self-expression with authenticity and places a heavy burden on selves to become transparent and fully actualized, I know that as a Christian I need not be crushed by the obligation of having fully to express, or even fully to understand myself here and now. If I remain torn between different identities, if I remain frustrated by who I am until the moment of my death, I know that just like the carnivorous lion who will lie down with the lamb and yet be more lion ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Christian Unity

I profess myself to be of no party, and to love all of every party who love the Lord our saviour in sincerity. If they preach the truth in love, live as they preach, and are wise and watchful to win souls, and to feed the flock, I care not much whether they are called, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Church men, Kirkmen, or Methodists. I desire to rejoice in their success, on every side. I believe the zealots of all parties, pity or blame me, for my latitudinarian spirit, but the moderate and peaceable of all parties show me kindness.  In some of the great shops in London, there are several counters; and servants at each to attend the customers. If these servants are faithful and have their masters' interest at heart, they will not be jealous of each other, they will not affront the customers by saying 'Why do not you come to be served on my side of the shop? If they are all well served and pleased, it signifies not to which counter they come. Now what are we but servants of...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

God Cares for His Work

The usefulness of some is protracted, while others…are taken away early, that those who survive may see that the Lord can carry on His work without them. He who has the fulness of the Spirit will never lack instruments to carry on His work. He can raise them up as it were from the very stones. He can call the most unworthy persons, and bring them from the most unlikely places, to labour in His vineyard. Had it not been so, you would have never heard of me. From what a dung hill of sin and misery did he raise me, to place me among the princes of his people! Consider what I was, and where I was (in Africa) and you must acknowledge I am a singular instance of sovereignty and the riches of His mercy!   JOHN NEWTON  (Source: Wise Counsel, p370)  Newton makes a very good point that the Lord provides for His work. It's very easy for us to think that the work we do depends on us, when in fact everything depends on Him. It is humbling to know that God doesn't need any of us i...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →