If I were to be transparent I would tell you a lot of the times my love can be conditional and that there are people whom I don't love. Even people who I am around on a week-to-week basis. There are some whom I am "supposed" to love that I disrespect by talking behind their backs. Even deeper than that there are ones who love me deeply that I'm not sure how I feel about them at times.
I've recently begun going to see a therapist, because I'm crazy. The first couple of sessions have been great [or miserable depending on how you look at it; but I will try to take the optimistict approach since I normally don't]; it has encouraged me to atleast think about some things I would like to change. In the last session he suggested I read 1 John through and through. Not that I place my life in his hands [heck I barely know him] but I believe he is smarter than me, so I listened. Everything I have read is about no longer walking in the darkness and ways to avoid making God look like a liar. Good stuff right?
Tough stuff.
Having to face my sins straight on and actually tell myself; "Self, that is a sin and if you don't admit that sin to God and think you [without Christ] are blameless... than you really think God is a liar." If you are wondering if I really talk to myself that way, yes I do. Remember therapy? Just kidding, I'm okay with having to talk myself through things.
One thing that I am finding out about admitting your sins to God is that the approach you take afterward is much different than if you denied having sin in you. I used to attend AA meetings when I was a little bit younger and they always said, "The first step is admitting you have a problem." The reason for that is how can you fix a problem if you don't even tell yourself there is a problem to begin with? You can't. Everything has to have a foundational beginning.
Now, that approach I am talking about after admitting your sins is, you understand your true need for Jesus. All of a sudden scripture like - 1 John 2:5 "but whoever keeps his [God's] word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him." - becomes alive. It has meaning and a hope that our sins could never give us.
All that was kind of a whirlwind off of what I originally was going to blog about, but it all comes together, right? Back to the beginning. If I want to get the most out of God's word, I have to take it as literal, because it is. About, not loving people [hating people], disrespecting others behind their backs, etc. This morning I stumbled across this scripture that perked up as something I needed to listen to. I am sharing it with you, not because I think you struggle with this. But because I struggle with this and I don't believe I am the only human who struggles with it.
"Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling." - 1 John 2: 9 & 10
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