Love 2
In my previous blog I wrote about God’s love for us, shown through Jesus. How can we respond to his love?
1 John 5:3 says, “This is love for God, to obey his commands.”
In John 14: 15, 21, 23-24, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command;” “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me;” “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching… He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”
He says again in John 15: 10, 14: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love;” and “You are my friends if you do what I command.” Ah, so we can respond to God’s love by obeying his commands, and this shows that we love him too.
I want to point out that obeying someone’s commands is a result of having love for them, but just because you obey someone’s command doesn’t mean you love them. The former way is how it should be, as shown by the example of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day: They were zealous in obeying the law, but Jesus rebuked them the hardest because their hearts weren’t right before God. Even Paul considered himself faultless with regard to following the law, but discards that legalistic righteousness as rubbish compared to following Christ (Philippians 3: 1-11). Even Jesus was once asked, “What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him what he can do: “Obey the commandments.” “All these I have kept,” he says, and yet he still asks, “What else do I still lack.”. Jesus says, “If you want to be perfect, give your junk away and follow me.” He had to lay down his own life and follow Jesus, engaging in a personal relationship with him. That what God is after, that personal relationship with each of us. And out of this love we will naturally want to obey his commands.
In John 13: 34 Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
In John 15: 12 and 17 he says again, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you,” and “This is my command: Love each other.”
1 John 3:23 says, “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”
In fact, love is of the utmost importance. 1 John 4: 19-21 says, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
1 John 2: 3-6 says, “We know that we have come know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
And how did Jesus walk? 1 John 3: 16 tells us that, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
“Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us – even eternal life. Now this is eternal life, that we may know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent.” (1 John 2:7, 3:11, 2:24-25, John 17:3)
So we see that, in reponse to God’s love for us, we can return that love by loving our brothers just as Christ loved us and laid down his life for us. But let’s go one step further and ask ourselves, “And who is my brother?” Jesus is asked this same question in the parable of the good samaritan, Luke 10: 25-37. I encourage you to read it anew for yourself, noting the emphasis on love. But also, when Jesus was asked, “And who is my neighbor?” he didn’t respond with a laundry list of people as the man expected. Jesus didn’t say, “Your neighbor is your family, friends, the guy living next door,” blah blah blah. Instead Jesus told him, through a parable, to go and be a neighbor, to anyone who needed a neighbor: everyone single person you come across can be and is a neighbor.
This isn’t easy to swallow, because your neighbors also include those people whom you do not want to love, even your enemies. Jesus says in Matthew 5: 43-48, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love you enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? are not even tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
True godly love loves even it’s enemies. Indeed, while we were still sinning against God, making ourselves out to be his enemies, he loved us and gave himself for us. That’s why Jesus tells us to be perfect as the Father is perfect, because God loves even those who set themselves up against him, and if we are to be his sons, then we should take after our father. So even our enemies and those we don’t want to love, they are our brothers too, and if we are to be obedient to Jesus’ command to love each other as he loved us, then we should be willing to give our own lives even for them. That is the standard.
So what does this love look like?
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. On the contrary, ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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.” (Exerpts from Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 13.)
Let us practice love, and continually seek and pursue the Source of love.
