A beautiful life-giving truth.

Do we see much love in the world today? I used to wonder at Jesus’ words about the narrow gate. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:13-14. He goes on…Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. v.21.

How do we know the Father’s will? Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:1-12.

It’s getting harder in this world to love others. I keep thinking about that. We can love our family and friends and people who we are acquainted with who agree with us. Do you ever wonder why we get so enraged with those who don’t think as we do? That anger causes the hate we see all around us. The hate of the world. We have the witness of the whole history of this world to see what hate does. We have the witness today of what the hate of the world does.

When we hate others we walk that wide, broad gate that leads to destruction; think of all the people who pushed to go through that gate. Think of all the hate today. That path looks pretty bleak.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever loves lives in God, and God in them. 1 John 4:13-16.

We can’t stop the hate in others. We can ask ourselves if we want to walk that wide, broad path that leads to destruction, sorrow, pain, death. Or…we can choose to take God’s hand and ask Him to lead us to that path that He is on. We can walk with Him learning from Him how to love even as we see the world around us clamoring for the path to destruction. We can live in the world but not of the world. As we keep our eyes on Him, we will learn to set aside the wrath of this world and seek His peace. It begins in each individual heart joined to Him. I don’t know about you, but I want to walk the path that leads to life eternal with Him beside me.