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August 23, 2015
Jesus spoke
concerning love saying, "This is
my commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you. Greater love has no one than this,
that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John
15:12,13).
It is one thing
to speak of loving commitment. It is quite another
thing to have that commitment of love. Praise God
for the example of His Son Jesus who taught with His
life how we are to love each other. In Jesus we
see that standard, method, and heart attitude of love
that each of us must measure ourselves by.
The example we
see in Jesus is the same actions and attitude of love
which we should be applying to our family relationships
and our relationships as the family of God. Which
prompts the question: How are we doing?
Being honest, we all fall short. And, some of us
have some pretty ugly moments that don't even come
close.
Being part of a
congregation is more than just showing up.
Longevity as a member of a congregation does not always
indicate the quality of our commitment to our brothers
and sisters in Jesus.
The Church of
Jesus Christ, the family of God, should be a place of
nurture, acceptance, strength, growth, and
development. The Church needs to be a family of
believers in which people can share their joys and in
which hurting people can have their burdens
lifted. How are we doing at loving each other?
May we first
realize the truth of what Jesus said, "as I
have loved you."
Meaning, that each of us has been loved with Jesus'
sacrificial love. There is no way that any of us
has what it takes to love each other unless we first
come to realize God's love for each of us.
Sacrificially loving others begins by surrendering
ourselves to God and accepting His love for us. If
we are to love others, He must love them through
us. To obey God requires His working in us and
through us.
Second, Jesus
commands us to love each other. Loving others
requires the choice of obedience. Let's face it,
there are times when others are not that loveable.
In fact, there are times when we are not that
loveable. To love others requires a commitment to
love them. Sometimes, when others deeply hurt us,
the only thing that keeps us hanging in there
is our choice to obey God.
Third, the "you love each
other" command is in
the plural. It's a group activity. We are
commanded to help each other through a mutual commitment
to sacrificial love. Love, in which the good of
the many outweighs the wants of the few or the one.
May our Heavenly
Father continue to help us each day to live following
the example of our crucified Lord that we would grow in
love for each other. May we be so in love with
Jesus that we set ourselves aside so that we are free to
love others sacrificially.