Why are we this way?

I received a very disturbing and sad email from a fellow friend and pastor who recently moved in order to take the lead at a church.

This is part of his email - - -

I will be retiring as of the end of Sept. This has been a difficult
church to deal with. This is a rural church consisting of several
several different families vying for control. It became a power
struggle with us in the middle. So, after much prayer, we decided
that we would not be able to continue doing ministry here.

Why do we do this to one another? I know the root answer is sin. Yet, in the midst of this my heart breaks for this brother in Christ. I am becoming more and more convinced of what Peter calls for in 1 Peter 1:22 ~ "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."

What powerful words from Peter. Is that how we really love one another, with sincere, unhypocritical love, a deep, fervent, passionate love, from our heart?

Then John adds these words in 1 John 3:11-24 ~

• 11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
• 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
• 16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
• 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
• 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

Remember these words are directed at those within the church.

Let the words of Peter and John sink in, then go an love one another!!