Sometimes the TRUTH of God’s word is hard to swallow and it will offend our flesh! Yet, it is the TRUTH that will make us FREE! Absolute Truth and Freedom are tied together. So let’s swallow some Truth for a moment! All in the Body of Christ (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers and Laity) have been COMMANDED to LOVE! No one is commanded to react from the flesh and hurt others. We are COMMANDED TO LOVE! “Jesus said…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the FIRST and GREAT commandment. And the SECOND is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40). Jesus also said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. BY THIS (LOVE) shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35).

We can be well known, have small or big ministries, hold positions, have titles, operate in spiritual gifts, do wonderful works for God, etc.; but if we are lacking AGAPE LOVE, what we do is in vain! Many want to justify for their actions for why they do what they do! But will that stand when face to face with the LORD OF HOSTS? There are people who treat others anyway, but the LOVE way! And we are COMMANDED TO LOVE with the Agape Love, not our fleshly love! Our flesh love does not want to behave as the Agape Love does! The Body of Christ is full of people who are in the Five-fold and laity who think nothing of how they hurt others! They wound with words; speak evil of; form opinions; find fault; criticize; judge; lie about, gossip; slander; curse; hate, etc. and let me add to that bad attitudes toward others!

What many times people do not realize is: When this kind of behavior is coming forth from a Born Again Believer (especially those who have been enlightened in the Word), it gives satan foothold in their life. Ephesians 4:27 in the Amplified Bible says, “Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].” We have a responsibility as a Christian to keep every door closed to satan. That means we need to bridle our mouth, so that we are not speaking anything contrary to what God has spoken in His word to us! Anytime our actions give him place, satan laughs at us for allowing ourselves to act like this giving him place in our life.

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” (Proverbs 6:16-19) “If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20). How can we believe we can treat others anyway we want and not reap some consequences? God will not be mocked! Whatever we sow, we reap! “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” (Matthew 7:1-2). “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37)

What is so very sad is, so many have had this “behavior of injuring others” for so long that it is as though they have allowed their conscience to become seared over and they go ahead and do that which the Word of God makes it plain not to do! There is no excuse for us being outside of the COMAMNDMENT OF LOVE! Yes I said it and the word back me up! The Truth is: When the sinner sees or hears a Christian (Five-fold and/or laity) say one thing and do another, it quickly turns them off. They do not want anything to do with Jesus and Christianity when they see this! Even with that, when our behavior is like this, it destroys our Christ-like witness when we operate our life outside of the perimeters of which we were COMMANDED! Outside of the COMMANDMENT OF LOVE! The Lord is calling the Body of Christ to TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS (2 Chronicles 7:14) and “REPENT”, coming clean of their evil ways and  walk of LOVE!

“In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.” (Proverbs 10:19). “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.” (Proverb 10:12). “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.” (1 Peter 3:8-10). “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29).

I Corinthians 13:1-13 (AMP) “If I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such [a]as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers ([b]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or [c]in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing. Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([d]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect). But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded). When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside. For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as [e]in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand [f]fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been [g]fully and clearly known and understood [[h]by God]. And so faith, hope, love abide [faith—conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope—joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love—true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.”