Text: 1 JOHN 4: 7-8
By: Bro. Ogumor, Sunny (Bishop)
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In a simple term “love for mankind” is action that is done to better humanity and usually involves some sacrifice not intended for profit.
If love is defined as ‘’wanting good to come to another person; or being concerned and willing to work for another person’s benefit’’. Then what is love to you?
God so love the world that He sacrifice His only begotten son for the benefit of mankind. John 3: 16.
1 JOHN 4:7-8 is a call to love.
The emphasis here is that love is the perfection of God and is the basic quality of those who truly know Him. Those who have been born of God and know God will love. And those who do not love do not know God because God is love. Meaning they are out of fellowship with Him. And at worst, they are not born of Him in the first place.
And the lawyer asked Jesus Christ
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Matthew 22:36-40.
Life in Christ is life of love as commanded by Christ. John 13:34. 15:12, 1 John 3:23. Galatians 5:22.
Christ has given the command, let not your heart be troubled if you believe in God, believe also in Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6. Christ is the road to paradise.
The love for God is the first and great commandment, and the sum of all the commands of the first table. Our love for God must be sincere, not in word and tongue only, therefore all the powers of the soul must be engaged for him, and carried out toward him.
To love your neighbor as yourselves, is the second great commandment. we must have a due concern for the welfare of our own souls and bodies. And we must love our neighbor as truly and sincerely as we love ourselves; in many cases we must deny ourselves for the good of others when the need arises.
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, love God, whom he has not seen? This then is the command we have from him: The one who loves God should also love his brother.
In 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Paul presented a good message about love, some versions of the bible used “charity”. This is “unconditional love”. Love is patient, kind, not proud and does not boast.
Often, we call this “Agape Love”.
Agape is a Greek word usually used to refer to selfless, unconditional love for others. It gained prominence when it was used extensively in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
When we talk about Agape Love we talk about:
- Self-sacrifice and loving others unconditionally, as Jesus loves people in the Bible. If you claim to be in Christ, you must live as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6
- Going out of one’s way to help one’s neighbours and create a caring community.
- Treating others with kindness, even when they are strangers.
- In Christianity, it is loving God selflessly.
The bible is clear on how to Show love for mankind.
Paul said concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 1 Thessalonians 4:9.
Love comes in various forms and varying degrees. But the greatest kind of love is not loving yourself only or your family and friends only, but it is your love for God and humanity in general. Galatians 6:10 do good to all men – Proverb 3:27. Loving yourself or your family and friends is much easier than loving God and all of humanity.
For most of us, we form our identity based on our race, religion, skin colour, and political leanings among others. We tend to identify with a certain group and call them “our people”. We also tend to be more welcoming towards people whom we regard as “one of us”.
Yet we often regard with suspicion those who we think do not belong in our society.
There is tribalism and racism everywhere, have you ever felt a relationship across race and tribe? If you are on the other side, that may not be entirely our fault. Your up bringing may have contributed to it.
Most of our dislike for others comes from the society we live in, our training and upbringing. You agree to it or not, some of us grew up thinking that some groups of people are not good to associate with.
This type of fear and mentality has been going on for some time. The time it started we can not tell; we just come to meet it as part of life. This makes love for mankind in general one of the most difficult kinds of love. It is very easy to love those people whom you identify with. But it takes a special kind of courage to love people you are not familiar with. Remember in Christ no Jew no Gentile.
With all that is going on in the world today, love for mankind cannot be at its peak. The wars, hunger, and pandemic we are currently going through speaks volume. This is not doing us any good.
Nevertheless, as Christians, this makes it all the more reason to spread love rather than hatred. To encourage those suffering that as long as they are breathing God have not abandon them. He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5.
Show concern for others:
You may not realize it but you can show your love for others even with simple gestures. It is time we begin to look at the good side of each other.
Just like there are two sides to every coin, we all have our good and bad sides too. Even hardened criminals have the ability to restore their reputation if they chose to do so. Repentance is open to everybody no matter how bad the person has become.
Rehabilitation of down trodden:
It is not good to be quick to judge others based on the bad things they have done. Condemnation never brings out the best in people but sympathy and re-orientation therapy will do.
Therefor, always remember to look for the good in people no matter how bad they may seem in other to bring such individual to complete repentance. Maybe all they need is for someone to understand them.
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: 1 Timothy 1:5.
Someone may have taken some wrong decisions sometime ago that changed the life to wrong side, this need to be overcome with assistance. Tell them Jesus Christ is not far away.
No matter how low someone may have sunk, they are still people with potential if encouraged. Yes, they may have made stupid decisions at some point. But that doesn’t mean they can not rise back up. That homeless people you see on the street is because something went wrong somewhere.
Everyone has potential, so instead of pulling them down, help them realize it. How shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14.
The writer of Hebrew said, “let us consider how we may encourage one another on toward love and good deeds”. Hebrews 10:24.
Choose to Love:
As a Christian, if you are given an option between “giving love” or “receiving love”, which would you choose? Receiving makes more sense for the feeble mind. If everybody receives who will give but if everybody gives everybody will receive. Then there is a merry-go-round.
You must support the weak – Acts 20:35.
After all, we all need someone to love us. Besides, loving others can be exhausting.
But what if we all think that it is better to be loved than to love? Where would humanity be? Most likely, we will all be doomed to a selfish existence where everyone lives only for him/herself. That would be a pretty sad world indeed. 1 Timothy 6:17-18.
Equality is one of the things that many of us have been fighting for. True enough, as humans, we are all created equal. We all exist under the same sky. We live on the same planet. So why do we have to treat each other differently? Hebrews 13:16.
Your service to mankind: Treating everyone as equals means removing all preferences and favouritism. See people for who they are and not their jobs or bank accounts. Respect random strangers the way you respect your parents. If everyone will just do that, then the world would be a better place – Leviticus19:34.
As you love your relations so love others.
If you’re wondering how much love you should have for humanity, think about how much you love your brothers and sisters. Or if you do not have one, think about how much you love your family.
Most of us would be willing to help our families at all cost. May we also show that kind of love for all of humanity. This seems a hard nut to crack, but that is life in Christ.
The best way to show love is to forgive.
Whether it is your family or a stranger, the best way of showing love is forgiveness. All of us can make mistakes but not everyone can forgive. And if we do, we usually don’t extend that courtesy to people we don’t identify with.
But everyone deserves second chances. Just like how God has forgiven us and accepted us back time and time again, we too should learn to forgive and accept others despite their shortcomings. This is how to serve humanity.
Show compassion for the less privilege:
Start by caring about what other people are going through. The sympathy or pity you have for the less privileged, the misfortune and suffering ones will show your love for humanity.
There are beggars and homeless people in our streets and corners. Most of the time we shrugged them off as lazy fellows, should they die of hunger. Think of poor Lazarus and the rich man and show compassion. Luke 16:19-21.
How they became homeless is not easy to know except you are the relation. A little compassion can go a long way in helping them turn their lives around.
Help your community to develop.
Giving back to your community may not benefit all of mankind directly. That small donation or the short time you spent in volunteering work can inspire others to do the same. Before you know it, you’re already creating ripples.
In a world where helping others has obviously become exclusive right rather than the norm. It is not that we do not want to help. It is just that we are too busy with our own lives that we forget others have troubles of their own too.
Often, we tend to think that we need help not considering the one who is helping. We expect other people to help us yet we are not willing to help others. Help should be reciprocal, may not come in the same way.
- Love to Mankind is of God. 1 John 4:7.
- Is Commanded by God. 1 John 4:21, 1 Thessalonians 4:9.
- Is Commanded by Christ. John 15:12; Ephesians 5:2.
Jesus Christ is in the forefront of love for mankind hence he gave the command in John 13:34. What the commander said must be carried out by the subordinates otherwise it will be recorded as gross insubordination. When you love one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.
John emphasized that “Love one another” is not a new command you have heard of it since the beginning, yet it is a new command now because we are beginning to see the truth about it.
Our eyes are beginning to open to see the light. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 1 John 2:7-9.
Show hospitality to all:
Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1-2. The author of Hebrews is calling us to love the brethren, meaning love within the family of God, the church and extend same also to the stranger and the outsider. The order here is important, if we can’t love our brothers and sisters, how can we love our neighbors by extension mankind. Charity begins at home but does not end at home.
Conclusion:
True love is not just a feeling, it is an action, a choice. If we know love, we know God, because God is love. Are you ready to make love your mission and bring it into every moment of your busy life? Ask your self.
There is a reason that the Lord Jesus reviewed the Law for us down to this one principle of rightly directed love. He taught us in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, that the two greatest principles of the Law—the principles that you can boil all other laws down to in their perfect form—are to love the Lord our God with everything we are, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Then who is your neighbor; it is “mankind” not just the one sitting next to you. As you expand the law out from these two principles, you see that they all work out from this ground floor, an encouragement for mankind to be united for Christ’s sake.
May God add blessings to these words in Jesus Name, Amen.
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