Living a life that Matters

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.   1 John 3:14-18

I always like to look back a year ago and compare who I hung out with then with who am I hanging out with now. It amazes me what can happen in a year. Life changes and people move on and new people come into our lives. I would say that I maintain contact with most of the people I have been hanging out with since last year. But I have had a little bit of a change with who I’m plugging into. My attitude has changed to ’who do I want to plug into that will benefit me more spiritually?’ or ’who is there for me when life gets rough?’

I have amazing brothers and sisters in Christs. I love being around this community and the body of Christ. But we are all sinners and we don’t always act Christ-like. I personally have just made a stand to better myself as a Christian. And I feel I need to surround myself those who benefit me and help me in that process. I’ve taken a step back in some my friendships and I’ve sought out other ones. I don’t believe in doing away with friendships all together. But we do in a sense have to prioritize some of our relationships.

For me, it’s by acts of love. I don’t just look at a person’s spiritual life, but also how they respond in love. I heard a sermon on the above passage last night. It was dead-on for me. I know myself I need to be better. One thing I’ve noticed is that many Christians are always there for you when times are great and not much is going on. But what about during the tough times? When things get rough. That, in my opinion, is a true test. When a brother or sister in Christ comes to you and ask for prayer, do you truly pray for them? When you have a conflict, do you resolve it or ignore it? I was pretty convicted after reading this.

This is why the world looks at Christians is a bad way. Not always because of what we believe in, but because we are no different from anyone else in how we act and treat others. Christ demonstrated love to us. We are to act out this same love to our fellow brothers and sisters.