“We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints…” ~Colossians 1:4

A “love in the Spirit” (Colossians 1:8) loves all the saints, all the saved. No exceptions. No loopholes. You don’t love some people in your church, you don’t show love to most of the people in your church–your “love in the Spirit” is a love for all the saints. And the writer of Colossians mentions those saints specifically in chapter 3, just in case you’re wondering, just in case you thought you had an out:

Greeks and Jews
Circumcised and uncircumcised
Barbarian and Scythian
Slave and free
Rangers fans and Astros fans.

A Christ-like love is a love for all the saints. No background checks, no application forms, no boxes to check, or requirements to meet. Our Lord Jesus has taken the burden off us of having to decide who to love and who not to love. He says our God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. God blesses everyone. God loves everyone. So, whoever is around me is going to get rained on! I’m going to love whoever is by me or in front of me. If you’re near me, you’re going to get loved.

Jesus says “Love one another as I have loved you.” So, it’s like you’re a FedEx driver. All the love is from God; you’re just the delivery guy! God fills your truck and you deliver the package. I heard Rick Atchley say this at Pepperdine a couple of months ago: “God’s love is not poured to be stored; we are filled to be spilled for the sake of others.”

And God will test you on it. He’ll give you pop quizzes to see if you’re loving all the saints. God will put difficult people in your life to stretch you to love them. And he usually does that at church. He’ll put a very difficult person right next to you in your Bible class. God will place a couple of impossible people right behind you in the Worship Center. He’ll put a difficult person in your small group. He does it all the time!

If you are a baptized follower of Christ, you have received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. And part of that gift is love. Divine love. Holy Spirit love. A love for all the saints.

Peace,

Allan