1 Thessalonians 3:12

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you

            Paul’s prayer for the Believers in Thessalonica was for the Lord to make their love increase and abound, not only to one another but to all. That should be our prayer every day before we walk out the door. We are not only to love the brothers and sisters in the church but that it would extend to all people. Jesus makes this a little clearer in Luke 6:32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”

                We can evangelize to the world, but until we love the world our talk is empty and is evident to those we speak to.  Paul noted in the last part of the verse, “just as we do to you”, is an eye-opener to those of us who are called to go and make disciples, which would be all of us. We are to make disciples of Christ, not of ourselves. We can’t make disciples of Jesus until we are saturated with the word and have walked with Him ourselves. Where would you be if Jesus only loved those who loved Him? Did the person who led you to Christ or brought you to church, speak to you with love? Do you only love lovable people or has your love increased and abounded to all? Todays question, have you been in the word enough to truly disciple someone?