Humility and compassion--the keys to love

We are in a challenging time in our lives right now. We are transitioning out of full-time church work into secular work again, and there are a lot of uncertainties and challenges ahead for us. It is remarkable to me that out of all of the many things that can cloud my day with worry, the most challenging of them all is learning how to love my fellow Christians through differences. The Lord is slowly turning and shaping my heart, and teaching me the "most excellent way".Working through I John for 30 days is also helpful for this, since John so beautifully describes the Christians responsibility to love and fellowship within the body of Christ. I John 3:16-18 are very helpful to me right now. They speak of two keys that I often lack when I am not walking in love. Those two keys?

1. Humility - v. 16, "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." Oh, how often I want to pick my life up, to defend my rights, to speak my mind. But Christ's example serves to plainly convict me. When it was in His power to defend His life, He did not. He willingly laid it down, and I ought to do the same for the brothers.
   
2. Compassion - vv. 17-18, "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." That phrase, "closes his heart against him". Oh, man that's convicting. Let's be clear. Rarely am I in the position of "having the world's goods" and seeing my "brother in need". That's just not my position in life right now. But often I see a brother that is need because of bad choices or foolish thinking or lack of trust in God or flat-out sin in their life. My reaction is normally to close my heart to them and judge them for being in that position. That is not the compassion that is commanded in this verse. This compassion would embrace a brother in deed and truth and let the love of God flow through Him. I have so much to learn here.
   

Enough for now.

Soli Deo Gloria