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Love: The Hard Truth
Here is a sentence that will land uncomfortably.
If you do not love the people right in front of you, you probably do not love God as much as you think you do.
This week's theme: Love.
Today, the hard truth from a letter that will not let us hide behind the vertical relationship while ignoring the horizontal one.
Read what John writes.
"Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." - 1 John 4:20
That is not a suggestion. That is a diagnostic.
John is saying, plainly, that love for God and love for people are not two separate categories. They are the same thing, going in two directions. If one is real, the other will follow. If one is missing, so is the other.
This is uncomfortable for a lot of us. Because it is possible, in modern Christianity, to build a robust-looking spiritual life that is entirely vertical. You pray. You read. You worship on a Sunday. You attend Bible study. You listen to sermons on your commute. Your relationship with God, as far as anyone can see, is thriving.
Meanwhile, you have not spoken to your sister in three years. You resent your father. You cannot stand your coworker. You silently look down on the people in your church who are not as spiritually mature as you. You avoid your neighbour. You have written someone off entirely.
John says, if that is true of you, the vertical relationship is not what you think it is.
Because you cannot love the God you cannot see if you cannot love the brother you can see. The horizontal is the test of the vertical. And the vertical is the source of the horizontal. They are joined. You cannot amputate one and keep the other alive.
Here is the hard truth of the week.
Every time you have chosen resentment over love, you have chosen against the God you say you love. Every time you have refused to forgive, you have refused to receive forgiveness. Every time you have held someone in contempt, you have made your relationship with God smaller than you think it is.
Nobody wants to hear this. That is why it is a Friday post.
The good news is that the direction is reversible. Choosing to love the hard person is the fastest way to open up your love for God. It is not a two-step process. It is the same movement. You extend love to the difficult brother, and you find your love for God grows. You forgive the person you resented, and you feel God closer. You take the first step toward the reconciliation you have been avoiding, and the vertical rushes back in.
Because the vertical was always meant to flow through the horizontal. That is the design.
Who have you been withholding love from? Whoever it is, that name is where your work is this week.
YOUR ONE THING FOR TODAY
Name the one person you have been withholding love from. Do not try to reconcile the whole relationship today. Just take one small step toward love. A prayer. A softened thought. A message. One movement in the right direction.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Father, forgive me for pretending I could love you while I refuse to love the people around me. Show me the specific relationships where I have been withholding love. Give me the courage to take the first step. Amen.
OVER TO YOU
Who have you been withholding love from? A word or a line. Every reply held with care.
God bless you, my friend.
The LowKey Christian
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