Day 12                                     Family Exam  -  The Test of Love                               1 John 2:7-11

1 John 1:10  He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

              God has designed a family to be a storage unit for love.  The world does not understand love.  God has given us some illustrations so that we can know what it means when He says,  “For God so loved the world.”  The illustrations come in a physical form called family.  A family by definition loves one another.  Brothers love their sisters and brothers. Moms and dads love each other and their children. The church is another illustration of God’s love.  We read,

John 13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

         This is not something new.  This is one of the basic building blocks of creation and of civilization.  Cain slew Abel,  but God held him accountable for his actions.  He said,  “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  The correct answer is expected,  “yes.”  Throughout the Bible we see illustrations of man’s failure to love and God’s revelation of His love for mankind.  Man does not have to be taught to love. 

1 Thessalonians 4:9  But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

         When we look at God’s Word,  it is one of the basic Christian teachings.  The first commandment is “love the Lord your God with all your heart,  soul, and mind.”  The second commandment that the Lord gave to His disciples,  was given in the book of Leviticus,

Leviticus 19:18  Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

         Love your neighbor as yourself.  This is one of the basic building blocks of Christianity,  but it is also a block that is missing in many families and in many churches.  There is a word in the New Testament in Philippians 2:13— vainglory.  It means that we are out for our own glory.   It means that the self glory that we seek is empty and groundless.  The opposite of vainglory is seeking the things of others.  It is what Christ did when He came to the earth. It is loving others as we love ourselves.

         We have a strong desire to have men look up to us,  to respect us.  We don’t want to be equal.  We want to be better than others.  We ought to be seeking God’s glory not our own glory.  Godliness says,

Philippians 2:4  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: