Love and Forgive like Jesus

Article for August 31, 2025

Hebrews 13:1–2 1Let brotherly love continue. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Luke 14:13–14 13But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

We are to love one another.  Though this would seem to be law it is nothing that can truly be forced on anyone.  For if your love is due to being forced it will not be genuine.  Love is in my mind and heart a means of obeying the gospel.  Love is best served when the one giving it does it truthfully from their heart with forgiveness and care.

In saying all that, we need to stop hardening our hearts and soften them to all who are in need and to anyone we are angry with.  One being in need is not just food and clothing but feeling loved and helping them feel like they matter.  Let your hello be more than one just passing by and let your goodbye be made after showing yourself as a friend.

What we do we should not expect to be reimbursed for unless you were hired to do work.  This is your daily means to enable you and your family an honest living that you were hired.  But what you volunteer for even though a thank you would be nice, do not expect it for your reward is truly in heaven at the time of our resurrection.

Hebrews 13:3–4 3Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Remember always, we are all sinners, and we all want forgiveness.  Those in prison are there mostly because of the crime they had committed.  Though we are not always caught, or our sin does not warrant us to be imprisoned, the punishment for all sin in God’s law is death.  Do you want to be forgiven?  Then forgive and help those in prison overcome their sin and repent for they to need forgiveness.

Be like the good Samaritan who helped the injured man on the side of the road.  We have the means to better help those mistreated than before this Samaritan came along.  Do not shy away like the priest or the Levite who passed by on the other side of the road.  In other words, let us always walk together on the same side of the road that we can help one another as we may have need.

Let us bring back the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.  Marry not for lust but for the willingness to love one another as a man and a woman should do in the eyes of our Lord.  Let us not wander off into another’s bed and commit adultery as if it were a sport or made legal by mankind.  Let us love our spouse until death do us part, for God has made us His own and we are being brought up by our Father in heaven to obey His commands and live in His gospel.

Hebrews 13:5–6 5Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

The Lord is our helper, and our riches are in His love for us.  We will be given riches untold in our eternal life, what they all are, I do not know.  But what I do know the riches you receive in heaven from our Father in heaven will bring you eternal joy. 

When God says something He not only means it, but He also follows through with what He says.  God says He will not forsake us, this is true, so let us not forsake our Lord who loves us to life eternal. 

Man can destroy our body but not our soul or our spirit which belongs to God who will give us a new body.  Love God because God loves you and gives you gifts mankind cannot give.  Be not afraid of this life but live for the next.

Hebrews 13:7,17 7Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 17Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

I hope through the grace and help from God to lead you into understanding God, His word, His Son, His Holy Spirit, and the great love He has for all.  My faith should you imitate anything I do is that I am very confident to the point of knowing God will always make the right choice, and that choice will always be for us and our wellbeing here and in eternity.  My faith also is that God will not contradict Himself or go against His will that He has already poured out for us.

Jesus Christ is God’s will poured out for us.  Jesus is the new covenant as His blood was shed for the forgiveness of all sin.  Jesus died to save us from our sin and all evil.  Jesus was resurrected for our benefit, and lives so that we can live in this life and especially in the next. 

Hebrews 13:8–9 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

In His name, Amen.

Written by Pastor Curtis A. May