Power UP | Effort
Effort
Is it easy to be good to one another? I think if we are being honest we know that there isn’t an easy yes or no to this one. Most of us would say we can be good to someone else, but what if that other person doesn’t believe what you do, or maybe has a different view point that rubs you the wrong way? Can you be good to them? Don’t assume that being friendly is the same as good, you can smile and wave at someone you strongly dislike, but to be good to them, that’s a different story. Jesus tells us that no one is good, not one. So how can we be good if no one is good? The answer; we must strive to be like Jesus. If we can agree that Jesus is good, then to be good to others is to be like Jesus to others. This creates a big challenge. Jesus forgave, Jesus was beaten, accosted, betrayed, hated, despised, rejected, and yet he forgave. Jesus was good, it’s going to take some effort to be like Jesus.
Further reading | 1 John 4:7-19
Loving One Another
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other[a] because he loved us first.