We look around and see a lot of evidence of the lack of love. One can see evidence of the phios love which is ideal brotherly love. We see plenty of the eros love which is self-centered and romantic displayed on the screen. Where can one fine the agape love which is unconditional and God’s divine love?
You have to look close because when God sheds His love in a true believer’s heart, the hard heart is changed and able to love on the highest level. In John 13:34 Jesus said,”A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another.” That command is impossible to keep, unless you have first been redeemed by Jesus and given the Holy Spirit to love sacrificially as Jesus did. Love the good, bad, and the ugly, the lost and found. We are all lost until we are found.
Many of us knew such a man who loved God and His fellow man, who was John D. Small. Brother John had a big, booming voice, and a bigger heart. How could we tell?
Matthew 25:35,36, “For I was hungry, and ye gave me food, I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came to me.”
We saw Brother John’s love when he administered to people in the ways mentioned in Matthew. His life backed up Jesus, as well as 50 years of warning people to repent and believe the gospel.
Thank God for a man of his calibre who was a light and salt for all around to see. This part of the world was much better for having a man like Brother John in our vicinity. He was truly a friend of God, and knew how to love on a Godly level.
Blessed are this who die in the Lord, they rest, and their works do follow..Rev. 14:13.
