Liar, liar, pants on fire.

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)

So… this really stuck out to me today at Church. (Side note- first time I’ve been able to go to church in a month and a half, and it was so nice!)

I’ve come across a lot of people in real life and online who profess to love God yet are completely judgmental and hateful towards all but those who fit into their idea of what is… I dunno. I suppose they only love those who are outwardly “good.”

Now, some people can probably look at this verse and say “well, ‘brother’ only means we have to love people who are our fellow Christ-followers” or ” ‘brother’ is just talking about family,” but I disagree. Maybe I’m wrong, but in this instance I think that “brother” means “fellow man.”

Because I know without a doubt that someone who professes to love God yet hates the world is lying. God loved the world so much that He sent His son to die for it. How can anyone say they love God, yet hate the world He sacrificed so much to save? Boggles my mind to meet or see anyone taking God’s name and attaching it to a sign like “God Hates Gays.”

Jesus died to save anyone and everyone who comes and accepts His offer. No matter how gay or lesbian, no matter if they’ve killed or stolen, cheated or lied, had sex with however many people, been addicted to porn, been self-righteous, selfish, hateful, spiteful, drunk, drugged… it doesn’t matter. God hates sin, yes. But He also loves the person who sins.

So if God can love someone despite themselves, then so should we.

Doesn’t mean I’m going to encourage someone to keep doing drugs, keep watching porn, or keep being gay. I know that I could probably get attacked for saying this, and maybe I will whether it be today or tomorrow or years from now, but all of those things are wrong. The first one is obviously detrimental, the second one is slowly being accepted as normal, and the third one is being encouraged by the world.

But just because someone does something that I think is wrong… doesn’t mean I can’t show them love. It doesn’t make me condescend to them, think less of them, or secretly think I’m better than them, because I’m no better than anyone else. I have no right to think I’m better than the next person, and I have no right to judge someone for anything that they do.

I have a lot more that I could spew about that subject right now, but I’m not going to. If someone comments and spurs a discussion, maybe I’ll expand. For now, I’m just going to leave it with this:

The best way to show Jesus is to show love to anyone and everyone you meet. The best way to know that someone is truly following Christ is by the love they display for others. It could be something simple as a conversation, a sincere “hey, how you doing?”, a smile… or it could be lending a shoulder when someone needs to cry on it. Acceptance of people as they are, not judgement of people for what they do.

Love God? Show it by compassion and love for everyone He created.

P.S. Feel free to get mad at me for what I’ve said if it offends you, but know that I would never attack anyone for what they do or who they are, and I am the only one who has the right to be angry at anyone who attacks me. Commenters, if you start to attack each other I will delete you or severely moderate your comments. Be respectful of your fellow man or woman, just as I’ve tried to be.

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