SermonLove Everyone
An all-creatures Bible Message

Love Everyone
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
8 January 2017
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Psalm 29:1-11
Proverbs 12:10
Acts 2:2-4
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
James 2:19

Love everyone is a commandment in both God’s creation intent and in His heavenly will, and it is not limited to other humans.
 
To love everyone is really part of loving God, for if we truly love God, we will naturally love the whole of His creation, because He lovingly created it, and it is really part of His nature.
 
Thus, to love everyone is really to love every other living being, both humans and other animals.
 
When David wrote Psalm 29:1-11, he was expressing his love for God, and we need to read these verses with the understanding that loving God includes the fact that we are to love everyone.

1. Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty,
Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
 
2. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name;
Worship the LORD in holy array.

We are to acknowledge who the Lord really is, which includes more than head knowledge, for even the devil and his demons know who God is, but they do not love everyone including God.
 
Isn’t this very similar to what we are told in James 2:19?

19. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that -and shudder.
NIV

Therefore, if we follow what this psalm is telling us, worshipping the Lord really involves loving God with our whole being, and if we do, then we will also naturally love everyone else, too.
 
If we fail to love anyone, then we have failed to fully love God.

3. The voice of the LORD is upon the waters;
The God of glory thunders,
The LORD is over many waters.
 
4. The voice of the LORD is powerful,
The voice of the LORD is majestic.
 
5. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

This makes a lot of sense when we realize that God spoke the whole of creation into existence, as we are told several times in Genesis 1.
 
So, if we acknowledge this, then we must also know that God can do anything else He wants to; and likewise, in His power and glory, He may choose not to do something.

6. And He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
And Sirion like a young wild ox.

Today, we no longer know the actual meaning and location of Sirion, but since it is mentioned with Lebanon, it could refer to a mountain range in Lebanon.
 
In other words, God has the power to make the land and mountains come alive like animals.

7. The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire.

This could mean that God has the power to burn up anything He chooses, or more likely it means that there is nothing in all of His creation that He cannot touch with His Spirit, because the Spirit of God is often depicted as a column of fire or flames of fire, just as we are told happened on the day of Pentecost, as we are told in Acts 2:2-4…

2. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
 
3. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
 
4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
NASB.

So, if we do not love everyone, God knows it.
 
And if we do really love everyone, they hopefully will be open to having the Holy Spirit touch them, and lead them heavenward.

8. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
 
9. The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve,
And strips the forests bare,
And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"

Note carefully that it’s not just the people in the temple who say, “glory”, but it is everything.
 
And, as all of us should know, not everyone in our churches is a true believer, so there must be more to this verse than what is seen in the casual reader’s eye.
 
To help our understanding, let’s take a look at 2 Corinthians 6:14-18…

14. Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

We are not to be bound to unbelievers, but neither should we chase them out or our churches, for if they are among believers, and say and sing what believers say, then hopefully some of them will also become believers one day.
 
This is an example of why we are to love everyone.
 
Furthermore, it might be helpful to understand that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had a problem with his own faith in the beginning of his ministry, and he was told to preach faith until he had it.
 
This is why it is so important for each and every one of us to live the life, the faith that we say we believe at all times, otherwise the unbelievers will only see us as hypocrites instead of the guide posts to heaven that God wants us to be.

15. Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

Belial is another name for the devil.

16. Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,
"I will dwell in them and walk among them;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
 
17. "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord.
"And do not touch what is unclean;
And I will welcome you.

We are not to participate in the things that the unbelievers do or eat; we are to be holy as our Father in heaven is holy.

18. "And I will be a father to you,
And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,"
Says the Lord Almighty.
NASB

If God loves us in this way, shouldn’t we also love everyone else, too?
 
With these things in mind, let’s go back to our psalm passage.

10. The LORD sat as King at the flood;
Yes, the LORD sits as King forever.
 
11. The LORD will give strength to His people;
The LORD will bless His people with peace.
NASB

Before, we mentioned that God has the power to not do something, such as bless us with peace, for as we know, we don’t have peace on earth.
 
This means that God has chosen not to bless the world with peace, because most of the people have not returned to God with an open and contrite heart.
 
However, God will bless His people (those who truly believe and live in His heavenly will) with peace in heaven.
 
And before we close our message, let’s take a look at another Bible verse, Proverbs 12:10, which also reminds us of the unlimited meaning of “love everyone”.

10. A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast,
But the compassion of the wicked is cruel.
NASB

If we think about this in terms of a righteous person also being a loving person in the context of what we’ve been talking about, it gives us a better understanding of the all-inclusiveness of what it means to truly love everyone.
 
Furthermore, we should all recognize that there are many people in our houses of worship that are cruel to animals either directly or indirectly, as is the case with people that eat animals.
 
And, we all need to realize that to love everyone in not limited to our own animals, but every other animal in the world.
 
It is common sense to understand that the sport of fishing is cruel to fish because it causes them great pain and panic followed by a slow agonizing death by suffocation.
 
We have also heard fishermen say that they are not cruel to fish, because they catch and release them; but they are proving that they really don’t love everyone, for they cause the same pain and panic in the fish, and many of the fish will die a slow death from their wounds.
 
We are to love everyone, and really love them, which means that we will also peacefully do everything we can to protect every living being from harm, whether human or other animal.
 
We can do this if we want to.
 
We can love everyone.
 
We should love everyone.
 
Amen.

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