“We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.” – 1 John 3:14

A big part of growing in marriage and running a household together is understanding what is important to your spouse. You quickly realize that the person you married has priorities that differ from your own. This can encompass everything from how the dishes are done to how the finances are handled. To give you a comical (and embarrassing) window into my own life, let me share a bit of my OCD with you; I need all the three-way light switches to be in the “right” position before I go to bed at night. It really bothers me if they are not. It makes no sense to my wife (why would it?!), but she humors me because she loves me. The truth is, our love for one another causes us to care about the things the other cares about, even if those things had never even crossed our mind before.

Ask yourself a couple questions: “What evils exist that break God’s heart but cause me no distress whatsoever?” or “Who does God love that I am continuing to hate?” As individual believers, or even as groups of believers, we have the evils we choose to despise and the evils we choose to ignore. We also have people we love and people we hate. Now, I am not saying we can fight every battle and address every problem, but if something breaks God’s heart, it should break ours as well. We may not be able to actively fix it at the moment, but we should never pretend it is okay. One of the ways we know that we have passed from death to life is that our heart aligns closer and closer with God’s every day. God hates all evil and loves all people. We should too.

Heavenly Father, fill us with your Spirit, change our hearts, and make us a people who actively demonstrate the truth that we have passed from death to life.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Shane Cannon