No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:12
As believers we should understand the mysterious substitution that has happened. Jesus has exchanged places with us, giving His righteousness in exchange for our sin. Verses in 1 John make it clear. Every encounter we have with a brother is an encounter with Jesus.
Every brother, every sister is a rendezvous of wonderful significance.
When we serve them, we are really serving the Lord Himself. I guess it can also be a sobering experience if we should mistreat or neglect them. What we say and what we do has consequences.
“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”
Matthew 25:40
There is no escaping the Gospel logic that our personal contact with each other carries an eternal weight. Immaturity and pride keep us from seeing the delicate connections that believers have with each other, and perhaps suggesting a new basis for our relationships is a bit much to hope for.
Every believer is someone who will be covered in glory someday.
Without a complete mind removal renewal we will continue to see others as rivals or people to control. We use the H.S. gifts to ascend rather than serve. The disciples had to make their adjustments. They were told that they were to lay it all down and wash each others feet.
We must begin to realize that when we touch someone, when we speak to a friend, we’re doing that to the Lord. Every believer is someone who will be covered in glory someday. We are to live out this wonderful mystery of Jesus living in our brother. He is that close!
“To love someone means to see him as God intended him.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Broken Believers 