Sadly so many people would say they are "Bible believers" but negate the commands of Jesus when He said;
1 Corinthians 7:10-11
"10 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife is not to leave her husband 11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband is not to [a]divorce his wife."
There are many in the modern church who form cliques, choosing to be kind only to people they prefer but have little empathy and love for those they do not prefer.
Galatians 2:6
"But as for the highly esteemed—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—those leaders added nothing to me."
Ephesians 6:9
"And masters, do the same for your slaves. Give up your use of threats, because you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him."
Colossians 3:25
"Whoever does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism."
James 2:9
"But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors."
Here is what God's love looks like when lived by the born-again believer.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8A "4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails."
We know God's love when we see it. Even when discipline is necessary it is done with tears and empathy, never with hate and anger.
Compassion and empathy is the hallmark of those who have been changed by Christ into a new creation.
1 John 4:20 says, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar"
1 John 4:7-8 "7 Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
It is not hard to discern the love of Christ in someone, it is a Spiritual discernment given to us by the Holy Spirit. Often I hear people say things like; "something was off about that person" but they couldn't see clearly what it was about them. Then later it is revealed to them this person did not have the love of the Holy Spirit because they were not born again. The evidence that they were not born again was their anger toward believers when the discussion of Christ came up in conversation.
We have many such people in church gatherings today. They have a desire to be seen as a good person but have no desire to be changed by Christ. These people are deeply dedicated to how they appear to others but are exposed when in the presence of someone they don't particularly like and usually it is those who challenge their walk with Christ.
Challenges to someone walking in anger reveal their character when they rage or exact revenge on the one who uses the Bible as proof of God's commands and principles.
Those who walk disobediently do not admit their misbehavior but rather defend their actions and attitudes while accusing others of things that are not true, to take the focus off of themselves.
We have seen it everywhere now, onlookers are confused because of baseless accusations. Many people tend to believe the accuser who is angry merely because they were angry, after all, if they got angry someone must have done something wrong, in their minds.
In other words, anger carries the day for onlookers who really don't know exactly what is going on. It is dangerous to have friends who believe the angry person over rational evaluation through knowledge of the situation.
Satan used the very same technique in the garden with Eve. He attempted to anger her through accusations about God that were not true, and sadly it worked. We see that mankind is often more likely to believe the accusations without evidence merely because of the anger than they are the explanation that comes after the rage.
We know this by all the false news people are willing to believe with no more evidence than "someone said it, it must be true" mentality.
Believers have to be diligent in seeking the Holy Spirit about everything in these last days of intense deception. Nothing is as it seems these days.
My practice now is to only look at the things I need to know and ignore all the rest. If something is important the Holy Spirit will tell me.
John 16:13-14 "13However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"
The evidence if something or someone is from God is; "does it, or do they, glorify Christ."
Just saying!!!!
