" By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one for one another."
The Bible tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love...(Gal, 5:22ff) and Oh, how we need to see more of this fruit in the lives of those who profess to be Christians today. In fact, someone once said that there were only two kinds of Church... {1} a loving Church ...and {2} an unloving Church ! How can this be?... We can all attest to that unmistakeable feeling of either warmth and joy, emanating from people in Godly fellowship, or coldness and misery, oozing from those whose sole occupation is backbiting and gossip ! Doesn't God tell us to cultivate the 'fruit' and root out the weeds?! Many, throughout history, have attended places of worship as regularly as 'clockwork', throughout their lives. But the 'good fruit' has been missing. There have always been those who made a great show of their wonderful 'relationship' with The Lord ! But God is not mocked (Gal.6:7) and we will ALL have to give an account to Him, one day, of how we lived our lives here on earth ! (Rom.14:10). Jesus warned His disciples that they would know false brethren by their fruits...(Matt.7:20ff). Let each one of us examine our ways and endeavour to aspire to that level of fellowship which was the hallmark of the early Church, as found in the book af Acts...(Acts2:42--47). We can meditate on these scriptures, as well as the first letter to the Corinthians.. (Ch.13:1--13). If Paul the Apostle only knew 'in part', where are we???
May The Lord Bless you.