Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12, NRSV)
If you love one another then you are born of God…
So who is the one another we are to love?
Just those in our congregation?
Just those in our denomination?
Just those in our wider understanding of the body of Christ?
Everyone that God has made (which would be everyone…)?
Whoever does not love does not know God.
So I would say we need to love everyone. But then how do we love them? With agape, or unconditional love? Or with tought love?
Do we judge them for what they do, but still love the person?
Jesus loved people where they were, forgiving their short comings, helping them up when others had knocked them down and sending them off to be new people.
How can we love others, the way Jesus loved us?
How can we show we are born of God?
aSacredRebel 