The Least of These

 

The Least of These

By Pastor Jean Marie

 

“When you receive the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, God meets you where you are at.  When you start down the path of righteousness, God is there to walk you and guide you through, to where He always will meet you at the end, on the other side of life.”  By Jean Marie

 

During this year of 2020, God has been giving us a time out to reflect on the important things in our lives.  For example, family, fellowship, faith, friendship, and most important love for one another including the love we have for Him.  God is trying to bring His people to their knees in prayer and we have found in this time of need that few want to come together to show love, instead, we are seeing hate in our countries and even more than expected, from people within the Body of Christ, His Church.  Those who are not yielding to what God is doing in this movement in time.  We need to be cautious that we are not leading people astray, by the cruelties of this world, but we need to learn to bring them together in unity.  At this time, the church has been and is failing.  Our nations are divided more than ever right now, by chaos and lies, that are coming from the pit of hell to destroy God’s people. It is time to wake up and see what is truly happening here.

We must be the light in the darkness right now and showing love, compassion, grace, and mercy towards all mankind.  God shows all of this to us every day, whether we realize it or not.  Just because He is unhappy with our choices this does not mean in any way that He does not forgive us. What God has been seeking for us to do is to, learn an extremely hard lesson within this all.  It is to look at how much He loves us and how precious we are that He has wanted us to learn how to fall in love with Him all over again, as well as our family, our friends, and our neighbors, which we may or may not know.

We are not to be the ones condemning each other, instead, we need to learn more about the love that Christ gave to us from His Father!  Let us talk about 1 John 4 in detail.  This is one of the best chapters that talk about love in the bible.  If you want to learn about the love of God 1 John has the best description and layout.

1 John 4:1-11

 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is very true today!  Let’s continue reading:

 ² By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

We must learn to be more cautious of whom we listen to for the devil is out to destroy the church and even some leaders are wrong on what they teach and preach right now, making them false before the eyes of God, as only God knows their hearts and He knows who is leading them astray.

Verses 4-6

⁴ You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God calls us His little children as we are learning every day about what He wants us to in the Bible.  We are of God, therefore, we know the spirit of truth is the ones who show love, and the spirit of error are those who condemn each other and choose a path of judgment.

Verses 7-11

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Only those of us who learn the meaning of God's love actually know God.  God loved us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to settle our sins through His Atonement (the Blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross).  If God can love us this much, why do we have a problem setting aside our differences to love each other?

Continuing on from verse 12-16

¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

God abides in us if we love each other, then the love of God becomes perfected in us through the Holy Spirit.  Only through the love of God are we able to be loving instead of condemning others.

Verses 17-19

¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us.

 What God is saying here is that because of His love we should have no fear.  It is unconditional love, so we have nothing to fear.

And we wrap it up with verses 20 & 21

²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? ²¹ And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

We are not to be liars if we cannot love our brother/neighbor, then we cannot have a love for God, as He loves everyone, no matter whether they are a sinner or not, God wants us to have that same love. 

You’ve heard the statement: Love the sinner hate the sin!  Well, this is exactly what the Lord wants us to do.  We are to be concerned about all creation and win souls for Christ, not be chasing them away from God with no hope for salvation by pointing out sins.  I always say it is harder for the sinner to become saved by going to church than for that person to get rid of that sin when they are outside of the church. Because there are many churches who, condemn an alcoholic who cannot stop drinking telling him that God will still send him to hell, although he claims to be a Christian and love God. Instead, should we listen to his problems and pray with him showing the path that God wants him to go down, loving him without condition, as God wants us to?  But many don’t because it is easier to condemn someone to hell because there is no work involved in doing that, right?  There is no responsibilities in that either because you did your part in telling the person there is no way Jesus could save such a horrible person.  Especially since Heaven and Salvation are only for the Elite perfect Christian who would never sin.  Let’s see what Jesus says about this…..

 

Mark 22:34-40

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

 This is the new law that Jesus brought to us.  So, if we are not doing this, then we are in trouble at judgment day, just for the reason, we decided we were better than Jesus because we know when someone does not deserve to be saved or loved, right?

Matthew 25:40

⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

When you read all of Matthew 25 you find that God is talking about those who were hungry, naked, dirty, homeless, cold, and basically the sinner.  Although Jesus was without sin, HE NEVER FELT HE WAS ABOVE ANY ONE PERSON.  Jesus came as a SERVANT to mankind as a sacrifice for sins He HAD NEVER COMMITTED NOR WOULD HE EVER COMMIT.  So, why do we think that we are better than the least of these?  Does not everyone deserve the chance to have Jesus become the love of their life?  Does not all of His creation deserve to feel the warmth and love that comes from their Father God?  Why can we not see who are the LEAST OF THESE?  Are we looking?  Are we helping?  Instead, we are too busy condemning those who we do not know.  Chasing them away from what should be their first love.  I’ve been seeing a lot of social media postings saying what God hates instead of what He has already forgiven people for.  We are to get people on the pathway towards God, showing them how He has forgiven them now that they are saved.  The more we do this the better people become, leaving their sins behind and following Jesus.

 

Mark 10:14

King James Version

¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

The word Suffer herein Greek is Aphiemi- which means to send away, desert wrongfully, omit, abandon, and leave destitute. We are God’s little children before and when we are first saved, sometimes all the way to death.  We are the least of these when we are still living in our sin, whether saved or not.

So, what Christ is saying here, is that He doesn’t want us to ABANDON and LEAVE DESTITUTE or DESERTED those who need help who want to know more of Him and grow.  Just because some people were their sins on their sleeves does not mean God thinks less of them, as there are a lot of us that do.  We believe that the sinner must stop their sin as soon as they become Born Again.  That is not how God does it.  They have lived that way a long time and He understands that it may take a lifetime to change, however, He will forgive them until they die, no matter what the sin is on the outside or even on the inside, God will help us to clean it out and will judge us according to our heart.  If we have a love for God, enough to try to change, and we love others as we love ourselves, this is what is held by God through the law and the prophets.

Show the LOVE of GOD to every man, woman, and child no matter what you think of them or how you want to see them change.  None of us are perfect only God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are perfect.  If they can love the least of these without condition then so can we.

I pray that everyone has had a Blessed beginning to the year 2021.  As we continue throughout the rest of our year, may we all remain healthy and be filled with the Love of God, through the Salvation of His Son, Jesus!  May the Holy Spirit give you peace, comfort, and joy.  Remember, to bring others hope, show them love, and give of yourself to the least of these!

In Christ's Love-  Pastor Jean Marie