JOHN 13:34-35 – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
THEME OF THE DAY. THIS IS HOW WE WILL BE KNOWN. Imagine if Christians, all Christians, that includes each of us, lived out these words of the Apostle Paul – “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a). Just picture what our families, churches, and communities would look like if in all our relationships our attitudes, actions, and speech were controlled by a love that is patient, kind, not envious, humble, self-denying, not irritable or short-fused, endures all wrong done to us without resentment, always forgives, never holds the past over those who have hurt us, and immediately looks for the best, not worst in people. The picture painted will be what Christians are called to do; represent the Lord Jesus accurately and sincerely through loving one another as He loves us. Today’s scripture makes this clear. Love, Christ’s love in us and Christ’s love from us is how we will be known as His followers by those observing us in our families, churches, and world. That is easy to say, easy to write, but difficult to live. In fact, impossible to live in the strength and resolve of ourselves. But don’t despair for when God commands us to do something, He empowers us to obey the command.
So, if love is the way we are identified as Jesus’ disciples and if it is a love that was modeled by Him, what are some characteristics of this love? Let’s consider three . . .
First to model as our Lord loves we must learn to be daily crucified with Him (Galatians 2:20). To express His love to others begins with the acknowledgement and attitude that we no longer live for ourselves. Crucified is the best description of a Christian; a crucifixion that puts to death self-interests for the sake of others.
Next to model as our Lord loves we must have one goal in our acts of love – to glorify God. That means we cannot serve others in love with self-serving motives. Our love to others is motivated by the desires to please the Lord and bring pleasure to Him by our obedience. We never love to get. We love to give without any thought of getting back.
Finally, to model the love of our Lord we do so regardless of the response from those we love. This will be hard because loving as Christ loves makes us vulnerable, easily taken for granted, and often responded to with a spirit of indifference or worse, hurt. That is the price Christians must pay to love as Jesus loves. We open ourselves up to pain and suffering. What was the response of most people to Jesus as He lovingly lived upon the earth? Rejection and ridicule. Some eventually killed Him. But take heart, the more we live out the love of Christ in our relationships, the more we will experience the love of Christ in our individual relationship with Him.
Love. It is how people know we are Christians. And it is modeled after Jesus; self-denying, centered on God’s glory, and not dependent on the response or worthiness of the individuals we love.
PRAYER: “Father, may I long to know more and more of Your love that I might be known by Your love.”
QUOTE: “Christ’s people are known for their love which is His love controlling and flowing from them”