1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. (8) Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Most of you know that RASNs (revilers, abusers, sociopaths, narcissists) are characterized by a lack of empathy. Perhaps you have even learned the truth that such people do not love. But have you really thought about this trait carefully. It is, after all, very hard for us to grasp.
“Anyone who does not love does not know God.” John tells us that there are indeed people who do not love. This doesn’t mean just sometimes. It doesn’t mean that they have very little love. No. It means they do not love ever, that they are entirely devoid of love.
Now, such people mask it. They fake love. They put on their disguise, but it is all a facade. Their heart is a vacuum, a black hole where love is not to be found. This is why they can walk away from a longstanding relationship as if a switch were thrown. They do not sense any loss because without love they never truly valued anyone else.
There are MANY of these kind of people around us. They are not a rarity. They have no compassion. They lack any ability to empathize with others. Love is what enables us to value other people, but where love is absent, other people are – valueless.
It is a very painful and devastating thing to experience this in someone whom you thought loved you – maybe even over a long period of time, as in a marriage. But the day comes when that cold heart is expressed in their face, in their tone of voice, and in their cruelty. Who can imagine it? And yet it is t here, and it is real. Such a person never loved you at all. Ever. Realizing this is very hurtful, and yet it is a necessary first step to getting free.
Monique
So true.👍
Cordelia
The tenants above me were “Christian” homeschooled and go to church every Sunday.
Their character says, “I’m entitled.” They didn’t alert the apt. staff they had a water leak because, (I’m quoting the husband) who said this outside when I was around) “They (the apt. managers) sent me a nasty text saying, I better alert them sooner next time or I’ll suffer the consequences. I don’t want to text with them (the emergency maintenance) in the middle of the night. I don’t want to be disturbed.”
These tenants walk across the floor like they were born in a barn, throw and roll dog toys across the floor *any hour of the day or night* with the dog running back and forth ad nauseum–the noise it produces is *very loud* in my apt. It’s so loud and thunderous at times the light fixture on the ceiling sways. Even after asking them nicely to walk quieter–it lasted a week–or having to say, “Stop” with the dog noises, they persist in obnoxious, rude behavior.
They’ve been here almost a year and find it funny to do this to me, especially the female with her ridiculing grin, when she sees me outside. They even have their family joining in. It’s not normal apartment living noise, it’s ‘we will live any way we want and could care less how it affects others’. I work sometimes 6 days a week and she’s home often; she can’t cause this racket when I not here? I work 9-11 hr. days and within 30 secs. of being inside my apt. I can hear her jump up from her chair/”throne” and the dog noises start.
It’s people like these tenants and those at the church I use to attend (that refused to help me when I told them I was being abused) that keep me from ever wanting to step inside a church again.