110 - Love One Another

John 15:12-13 NASB

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

1 John 4:19 NASB

We love, because He first loved us.

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We are new, reborn and recreated, and our perspective is no longer of this world. We do not fight as the world does, against flesh and blood, but against an evil that grips men’s hearts. At one time, we too were enslaved, held captive, striving against one another to maintain an identity. We live in the world, but we are not of it, we have been set free into a wholly new identity. We are taught by God to love because He first loved us, imitating Him as those who have been made to be like Him in true righteousness and holiness.

Held in the grip of grace, we show love because we understand what is in a man, the mindset of this world, a world blinded by sin and an overwhelming weight of guilt. What Jesus proclaimed on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” becomes our perspective. An understanding enabling us to do the extraordinary, to show love and kindness even in the face of an evil that seems so prevalent.

We lay aside indifference toward one another, loving because God cares for all, and sustains all, every heart beat and every breath. Whether great or small, rich or poor, righteous or unrighteous we all in Him move, and breathe, and have our being. He sends rain on the just and the unjust, blessing our lives with good things that we might reach out to Him. In this we recognize and consider one another worthy of love and compassion because He considered us worthy by saving us.

Created in His image, we are a collective with one purpose, to draw one another nearer to God. It is a process that flows from God through us as we come to understand and grasp His love, and then outward to a world who does not know Him. In thankfulness and gratitude, we reach out because God reached out to us. In humility, we love, understanding our position and knowing we share the same Master in Heaven. We express compassion because, at one time, we found ourselves separated from God, without Him in this world, and experiencing its deep despair.

It is God’s love, His kindness, that leads people to change their minds, to regret their past sins. In the same way, by loving one another, we make that kindness and love evident to others. Just as Christ Jesus was the exact representation of God, we too represent God to the world. We align ourselves with God and His love, for as He is the light, we too are lights to the world. We are to let our light shine in such a way that others may see our good works and glorify our Heavenly Father. To live in such a way, is to live in love, not for the glorification of self, but for the glory of God.

We have a calling in line with Christ Jesus, who emptied Himself and came to this world for us. “Greater love as no one then this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Called to love as Christ loved, we lay down our lives, not necessarily our physical lives, but setting aside ourselves for others, considering others greater than ourselves. In Christ we have been given all so that we might give all. We have a new life, that we may impart that same life to others.

We are no longer entangled in what in this world is a stumbling block, a dividing wall, namely, our ego and the quest for earthly possessions. These cloud what is most valuable, a heavenly reality that transcends all in this world. All we once held so precious we release, because what we now possess is far more precious. We have a new position, and from that position, we see beyond. In seeing beyond, we are enabled to rise above, to let go as Christ let go, and to love as He loved. In doing so, we reveal the truth about our God to a world in need, that He is love.