GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS..

Love God, love your neighbor...Matthew 22:37-40

Can you love someone and not like them? No you can't....not if you love and serve Jesus.

What God does for one, He will do for the other. God sends the rain on the just and the unjust. God's love never fails, but ours can and does...

"But i say unto you Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. That ye may be be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matthew 5:25

Ever been unloving to someone you love? Felt hurt or unloved back? Been waiting in line at the movies or at a restaurant for someone we love, who is way late, and felt annoyance or impatience creeping in, rising up? Felt hurt when someone we love does not call or remember us? How about unappreciated by those we love? Ever said... "i love them but i do not like them"? or "Boy they get my last nerve." Our love must be unconditional toward all.

Are these fleshy emotional responses bad in themselves, no they are not. Not if we take them captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). They are to be used as indications of our heart, indications that our response is not what it should be. That we are not loving as Christ loves. Indications that we need to change our mind, be that new creature God made us in Christ. We need to take our heart to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. If we feel hurt, we need to remember "love is not easily angered," " love keeps no record of wrongs." If we are impatient, we need to remember that "Love is patient." If we are mean or annoyed we need to remember "love is kind," "not self-seeking" etc.. Our loving others is never dependent on if we like them or upon their loving us or their actions toward us. We love God and our neighbors because God loved us first. Our love flows from Him. "Love never fails, always perseveres." Loving as God loves takes work for it to flow naturally. It takes a daily dying to self and taking up the cross. It takes forgiveness.

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do...." Luke 23:34

My spiritual father says that walking in forgiveness is "freedom from other peoples sin". If we truly walk in love and forgiveness, then we are never offended. Then the Holy Spirit can and does flow through us as we live each moment, and we truly will reflect the divine influence of God upon our hearts to the world (Grace).

So, as God is no respecter of persons, so are we to be no respecter of persons. Loving our friends and loved ones as easily as we love the lost. As God loves us, so shall we love. Just love them. If we say we do not like someone, then we sure do not love them.

"Then Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth i perceive that God is no respecter of persons." Acts 10:34

"For there is no respect of persons with God." Romans 2:11

i had to learn this in my family. i have a brother who is lost. i said for years that i loved him, because i knew that is what God says i should do, but i readily professed that i did not like him. It was finally brought to my attention that i was not loving him as God says i should. i did not want to be around him and his sinful lifestyle, i was offended at it all. But the offense was mine. if i walk in love and forgiveness, then there is no offense. i realize he is lost and my heart breaks for him as for all the lost, and now i can be loving with a pure heart when i am with him, reflecting the influence of God's grace upon my heart. God is good. Love must be unconditional for it to be God's love, for it to flow in the Holy Spirit. We cannot put human conditions on the love of God that flows through us.