{"id":55374,"date":"1997-09-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1997-09-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/greater-love\/"},"modified":"1997-09-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1997-09-01T00:00:00","slug":"greater-love","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/greater-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Love&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is a savage just because he is <em> your<\/em> enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks <em>you<\/em> are a savage. Or perhaps he is afraid of you because he feels you are afraid of him. And perhaps if he believed you were capable of loving him he would no longer be your enemy.<\/p>\n\t\t<p>Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is an enemy of God just because he is <em>your<\/em> enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy precisely because he can find nothing in you that gives glory to God. Perhaps he fears you because he can find nothing in you of God&#39;s love and God&#39;s kindness and God&#39;s patience and mercy and understanding of the weakness of men.<\/p>\n\t\t<p>Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God. For it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and sensuality and selfishness that have killed his faith.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3526,3867,3979,4310,4311,4312,4395,4397,4404,4919],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,384,386],"class_list":["post-55374","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-brotherly-love","tax_ctp_tags-enemy","tax_ctp_tags-fear-of-man","tax_ctp_tags-judging","tax_ctp_tags-judging-others","tax_ctp_tags-judging-ourselves","tax_ctp_tags-love","tax_ctp_tags-love-for-enemies","tax_ctp_tags-loving-the-unlovely","tax_ctp_tags-self-examination"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Greater Love... - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/greater-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Greater Love... - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. 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