1 Thessalonians 4:9
9 But [de] as touching [peri] brotherly love [philadelphia] ye need [echo] [chreia] not [ou] that I write [grapho] unto you: [humin] for [gar] ye [humeis] yourselves [autos] are [este] taught of God [theodidaktos] to [eis] love [agapao] one another. [allelon] KJV-Interlinear
9 Now as to the love of the
brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are
taught by God to love one another; NASB
You have within you,
intellect, common sense, and intuition (natural instincts). Among these three, God makes the various principles
of life clear to one and all.
There is no need to
teach each person, the difference between right and wrong. Even those who grow up in third world
settings, among hate and radical teachings, and especially where the scriptures
of the Bible are not readily available, it is possible for a person to reach
the right conclusions about life, about people, and about relationships between
people.
Paul makes it clear here, that no writing is required in order to instruct folks
as to how they should deal with others.
Granted there are those
who are heartless and hard cases with respect to their dealings with
others.But even the worst of criminal
attitudes, knows that his views are wrong.
He simply does not care to make the effort of being friendly, or honest,
or sociable.
And if the hardest of
stubborn attitudes can know this difference, then certainly you, who are most
likely not so criminally inclined, should be able to discern between how to act
with others and how not to act in public.
This difference is made
clear by God Himself.
In all
the world, the acts and truths of God are made known in innumerable
ways.Unbelievers come to God
consciousness through their environment, simply by their observations in
life.
Believers in Christ
have already passed this barrier of faith, and their perceptions should be all
the more clear to them.
But whether believer or
unbeliever, the interactions between people is a common experience, of which
everyone sooner or later, comes to the understanding of what is appropriate and
what is inappropriate.
Being a believer in
Christ, you have even greater responsibility to follow the mandates from God,
with respect to how you deal with others.
Having eternity and your spiritual life on the line every moment of your
life, any inappropriate behavior only brings you great loss, in exchange for
nothing being gained by bad behavior.
God did not place you
on this earth, to judge or criticize or complain about others, or even to be
downright mean. He placed you here to
grow up in your spiritual life, and to be responsible.
And whether you are an
unbeliever or believer, you have no excuses for bad behavior. All of your choices in life come from your
own decisions, and your decisions come from your own thinking, and no one can
reach inside of your mind, and force or coerce or threaten, or cause pain for
you in order to force any thinking upon you, without your accepting it first.
Even in pain, fear or weakness,
you still know the difference between right and wrong.
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