Pastor P. O. Aderoju
The Senior Pastor of Christ Apostolic Church Oke-Ayo Headquarters, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria
WHO SHOULD YOU LOVE?
TEXT: JOHN 3:16
Today, I want to share with us a very important topic. If possible, this may take several weeks. The topic is WHO SHOULD YOU LOVE?. I want you to read with full concentration and continue to be on this page in coming weeks because it is very important.
The area I want to consider today has this sub-topic “WHO SHOULD YOU LOVE?”. Before I go into the sub-topic, there are two important reasons I want to share this topic with us (by the directive of Holy Spirit).
These are :
- God that created the heaven and the earth, He whom many of us are serving, He who will judge everything, He whom we proclaim to be His children, servants or whatever we call ourselves in relation to Him. The Bible says “He is Love”. This means, if God who is the creator of heaven and Earth is Love, love is very important for anyone that will walk with Him.
- If we should consider the problems or troubles of this world critically, in each country, town, family, even between two friends, we will see that it seems as if 90% of them emerged from lack of love. If we should examine everything going on right now, we will see that what is behind it, is the problem of love, because where there’s love, every problem is almost solved. I would like us to concentrate.
God is Love, which means Love is important. I told us that the angle I want to share with us today is “WHO SHOULD YOU LOVE?” This is where human beings have problem. Many that claim to love, love some sets of people and hate others. Some love those that are generous to them and hate those that are not. Some love their relatives and hate those that are not, and some love their political party members and hate those that are non-members, These people believe that they love. We want to check the Bible if all these are Biblical. What is the stance of God who created the heaven and the earth concerning those we are to love if we want to be like Him? He whom we will stand before some day and will judge us.
John 3:16. Many knew this Bible verse by heart, but failed to meditate on it as the Bible told us. We want to use God as an example. We’ll consider those He loves, so that we will know whom to love. Here, who does the Bible says God loves? White people? Fair people? Dark people? Young or old? No! The Bible says “God so loved the world“. This means, He loves everybody on Earth (both good and evil, male and female, those that serve Him and those that do not). He loves everyone!
Dear reader, you should love everybody. God’s love is an example. This is what is lacking in the world that causes many problems. We should love everyone (those we know and those we do not know, young and old, relative and non relative, our boss or subordinate, those of your religion and those of another religion). We should love everyone. God wants our leaders to love us (their followers) and we the followers to love our leaders. You will see as I have said earlier that if this kind of love exists, the problem of this world will vanish or be minimized.
If those that are leading us love us, they will give us our right. The money that belongs to the whole country with millions of people will be embezzled by just one person because he does not love them. An armed robber who lays in ambush for people on the road and injure them because he want to collect money from them is doing so because he does not love them. Vices and corruption are problems emerged from lack of love.
The Bible says “for God so loved the world“. I am telling you that God wants you to love everyone. If everyone loves one another, if the rich love the poor and the poor love the rich, if the Yorubas love the Igbos, if the Europeans love the Africans, and males love females, tell me, are we going to have problems in this world? You will see that peace and unity will reign, and everything will be going smoothly. But today, many do not love, or better still, they are being partial. Some believe they are to love some set of people and hate others, and that is why the world is what it is today. This shows that those you love are those that you will do good to, and may do evil to those you do not love. If that be the case, there will be problem in some angles, and that is why this world and each family is what it is. Therefore, what the word of God says is “love everyone” because God so loved the world. That is why God rains on the house of the good ones without sparing the house of the evil ones. LOVE EVERYONE is God’s commandment. If we love everyone, there will not be any problem, peace will reign, and this world will not be like this. The commandment of God is LOVE EVERYONE. If you want God, the creator of heaven and Earth, to love you, you need to love everyone. If you are without love, you have transgressed the greatest commandment of God, or you love a set of people and hate others, you have not done the will of God and you have not been justified before Him. God’s character and commandment is that we should love everyone. People you meet, whether from your tribe or not, you are expected to love them. You will see that tribalism here and there emerged from lack of love. Some love those that are of their tribe and hate others, and that is why there is no peace, unity or progress. We must love everybody, not minding the tribe they come from. If we can love everyone, peace will reign and everything will be good. All the problems we are encountering would not have been because all these vices would not exist. This is because if you love people, you will not be able to harm them..
Therefore, dear reader, the commandment of God is that we should LOVE EVERYONE. Do you even love people at all? Maybe you love a set of people, you are not yet perfect. I want you to change. Ask for Grace to love everyone. God will help you in Jesus name. You will be justified. Christ will enter your life and you will receive Grace. Everywhere you have failed to love before, or you love a particular set of people and hate others, the Lord will forgive you. Jesus will wash away your sins. As from today, God will help you to love as God loves and wants us to love in Jesus name Amen.
