A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this the world will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34-35 ESV

For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone might lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 ESV

When you hear the term “give as good as you get”, it generally refers to standing up to someone in a fight. According to the idiom dictionary, it means to treat someone as badly as they treat you. But I am using this term literally this morning.  We receive good things from God, but they do us no good if we don’t extend them to others.

Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). He doesn’t require us to clean up our act and come to him. He will take us just as we are.

Christ gave his one and only Son to die for our sins.  He loved us that much. I am so amazed at the story of Abraham  and Isaac (Genesis 22:1-18). God told Abraham to bring his son, the one that he had been blessed with late in life, the one that God had promised to him would be the father of a great nation, and sacrifice him.  Abraham was obedient. In Hebrews 11 we are told that Abraham trusted God to bring Isaac back to life. He had great faith or walked in faith like we talked about yesterday.

One of the easiest things for the devil to do to me is to make me upset with a sinner. He likes to make me angry with that person and he likes to make me talk bad about them. But what am I? Oh yeah, I’m a sinner too. There is no sin that anyone else commits that is worse than my sin. Sin is sin, there are no big sins and little sins.

God gives us the best of his love, mercy, and grace.  He forgives us our sins. All we have to do is earnestly repent and come to Him and He will forgive us.  He also forgets our sins once we have repented and He has forgiven us. We are told in Psalm 103:12 that he removes our sin as far as the east is from the west.

So, I ask you to join me in a bit of soul searching today, are you giving as good as you get? If you have accepted Christ and received Him as your Lord and Savior, you are getting the best.  But, are you giving the best.  Are you giving mercy and grace? Are you forgiving others as you want Christ to forgive you? We are told very plainly in Matthew 6:12-14 that if we forgive others, God will forgive us, but if we don’t forgive others, God will not forgive us our wrongdoing. Is that person that you dislike or that you are angry with worth that risk?

We are to love others as Christ loves us.  He loves us unconditionally. He loves us despite our faults. He loves us constantly. I ask you today, do you love that way? We are not going to be happy with everyone. We are not going to approve of what everyone does.  It’s okay to hate the sin, but we must love the sinner.

I ask you today to think about how you treat others, especially those in your life that are not so loveable. Do you love them with that agape kind of love, the way Christ loves you?

Now as some of you are reading this, you are probably thinking, “Yeah, but you don’t know what this person did or is doing.” You’re right, I don’t, but God does and believe you me, God is dealing with that person. Don’t allow that person to drag you down with them.

We will also encounter others that entice us to sin, try to share God’s word and God’s love with them, but if they reject that, shake the dust off your feet and move on.

As you go through this day and deal with others, I ask you to keep this one question in mind, Do I give as good as I get? If you are loving others like Christ loves you and forgiving others as God forgives you then you can say that you are truly giving as good as you’re getting.

Have a great day!