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“God hath not given us the spirit of fear…but of love” (2 Timothy 1:7).
When things are going downhill among believers, we may try to prop them up by introducing rules, using our own strength and ideas to hold things together. Here we are told that one of the characteristics of the spirit that God gives us is love. This means divine love—a love that keeps on loving, even if love is not returned by the one to whom we are showing love. This is not easy, and we can do it only because we have a new life in Christ that makes us capable of it.
Divine love does not take a casual approach to something wrong, but always seeks the good of the person who is loved. That means that even if we feel obliged to say something to someone about the way he or she is acting, it should be done with love. It makes a big difference!
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