In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
Job 12:10
Father God let this reading today touch someone’s heart in Jesus Precious Name Amen.
As it reads in John 13:34-35 Jesus taught, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Then He added, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”. How do we do this? Listen, be concerned about their situation and pray for them. What does it mean to love one another? Loving others isn’t always easy, but a Christlike love means forgiving, accepting and honoring even those who are different and difficult. Our ability to love others comes from God (1 John 4:7, Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knows God. KJV) We can only give love when our hearts are full of God’s love. That is the formula. Any other attempt at loving one another simply does not work.
The “one another” in these verses is a reference to other believers. A distinguishing mark of being a follower of Christ is a deep, sincere love for brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. The apostle John reminds us of this fact elsewhere: 1 John 4:21, And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. NIV
In giving this command, Jesus did something the world had never seen before; He created a group identified by one thing: love. There are many groups in the world, and they identify themselves in any number of ways: by skin color, by uniform, by shared interest, by alma mater, etc. One group has tattoos and piercings; another group abstains from meat; another group eats just vegatables yet another group wears toe rings. Just some examples the ways people categorize themselves are endless. But the church is unique. For the first and only time in history, Jesus created a group whose identifying factor is love. Skin color doesn’t matter. Native language doesn’t matter. There are no rules about diet or uniforms or wearing funny hats or dyed hair etc. Followers of Christ are identified by their love for each other.
The early church demonstrated the type of love Jesus was talking about. There were people in Jerusalem from all over the known world (Acts 2:9–11). Those who were saved got together and immediately began meeting each other’s needs: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” (Acts 2:44–45). This was love in action, everyone knew the needs of others and you can be sure it made an impression on the people of that city.
Jesus’ statements in John 13:34–35 raise a couple of other questions that may be good to answer. First, how does Jesus love? He loves unconditionally (Romans 5:8, But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.), sacrificially (2 Corinthians 5:21, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. NIV), with forgiveness (Ephesians 4:32,Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. ), and eternally (Romans 8:38–39, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ). At the same time, Jesus’ love is holy, characterized by transcendent moral purity—because He is holy (Hebrews 7:26, Such a high priest truly meets our need, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.). The culmination of Christ’s amazing love for us is His death on the cross, burial, and bodily resurrection (1 John 4:9–10, This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. NIV). Believers are to love each other like that.
Second, how then can the believer in Christ love as Christ loved? The believer in Christ has the Holy Spirit living within him (1 Corinthians 6:19–20, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. NIV). By obeying the Spirit, through the Word of God, the believer can love like Christ does. He shows that unconditional, sacrificial, forgiving love to fellow believers, but it doesn’t stop there. He also shows the love of Christ to friends, to family members, to coworkers, etc. (Ephesians 5:18, {NIV} Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, – Ephesians 6:4; Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. ) (Galatians 5:16, So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. {NIV}). Even enemies are the recipients of Christ’s love.
Matthew 5:43–48, Love for Enemies! {NIV} “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus’s love displayed through the believer is unlike the “love” brought about by the flesh, which can be selfish, egotistical, unforgiving, and insincere. gives a wonderful description of what Christ’s love will be like in and through the believer who walks in the Spirit.
People don’t naturally love with agape love like Christ. It reads in 1 Corinthians 13- If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Sometimes I think back on this chapter because of hot tempered others. I pray for them to have this kind of love, but then I remind myself of this type of love that is to love like Jesus. To love like that, there must be a change of heart. A person must realize that he is a sinner before God and understand that Christ died on the cross and rose again to provide him forgiveness; then he must make the decision to accept Christ as his personal Savior. At that point he is forgiven by Christ and receives God’s gift of eternal life, in fact, he becomes a participant in the divine nature. In Jesus he knows that he is genuinely loved by God. The new life the believer receives includes a new capacity to love like Jesus loves, for the believer now has living within him the unconditional, sacrificial, forgiving, eternal, and holy love of God (Romans 5:5, And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.).
To love one another is to love others as Christ loves us. Those who love like Christ in the Holy Spirit’s power will give evidence that they are disciples, or learners, of Jesus Christ.
{Prayer}
“Lord Jesus, I need you. Thank you for dying on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. I ask forgiveness for my sins and receive you as my Savior and Lord Jesus thank You for Your Agape Love for me in Your Precious Name Jesus Amen.
{Power Verse}
Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10 NIV
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