But They Love Jesus...

I may step on a few toes with this post, but what I am about to share hit me all upside the head and shoulders long before it made it's way onto this blog to step on your toes! So here's the thing, I have noticed a lot lately in Christian circles that  people will say things like; I know they did _____ or said_____ but they...“Love Jesus.” Now, we all make mistakes. I am the queen of putting my foot in my mouth. But, for some reason that whole phrase I began to notice Christians, myself included, use a lot in reference to someone who professes to be a Christian. When people use that saying I know that’s what they mean, but hear recently there have been different phrases that again, I myself have used so I’m not pointing a finger at anyone, but there are just some phrases that we throw around when we are speaking "Christianizes"  but I don’t think we even really know what we are saying or what we even mean ourselves. One of those is “but…they love Jesus.”

A few months back I began to ask myself, "how does God define what it means for someone to love Him?" Not only was I convicted, but it showed me that we (myself included) need to be very careful when we throw that phrase around describing people who are professing to be believers and followers of Jesus Christ.

1 John 5:3 about knocked me over when I read it because it was so black and white! It was first a heart check for me, and has since caused me to be far more careful to use those words when describing someone’s character; which is what you are doing when you say, “they love Jesus.”

“The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.”- 1 John 5:3 (message)

WOW! I'm sorry, but you can’t get much more to the point than that! You want proof whether someone, yourself included, really loves the Lord Jesus? Do they obey God’s commands? Do you obey his commands? Do I obey his commands? 

So next time you are tempted to say that a person loves Jesus take a step back and ask yourself, “how obedient are they?” If you don’t know, if there is not evidence in their life of obedience, I would be very careful about labeling them as someone who loves the Lord. Now, It's not your job or mine to judge anyone, but just be careful in slapping that label on someone when you don't see evidence of an obedient life. But, before you start looking at all the people around you, always first take a good hard look in the mirror. There is a huge difference between just being saved and loving Jesus.