John 13: 34-35 Love one another

John 13: 34-35  

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Today we are going to switch gears some from the Psalms we have looked at in order to remind us of the basic importance of love.  

Jesus commands us to love one another.  This love is a complete commitment.  It is not just a feeling.  Not the mushy love that we might see on TV.  The romantic love that we say we fall into.  It’s a love that makes a decision to follow Jesus command.    

Jesus says a new commandment I give you to love one another.  Now if we look closer we might wonder, isn’t this an old commandment?  Hasn’t God commanded us to do this before?   We are to love God and our neighbor right?  We see that commandment in the Old Testament.  Yes it is an old commandment but it is also new.  

How so?  It is new, not because it is a completely different idea than what we see in Old Testament, it’s new because the way we experience love in Jesus.   How Jesus loved us makes it new.  We are to love others as Jesus loved us.  And that changes things and makes all the difference in the world.   It’s new because we are able to love in the same way and with the same power that Jesus loved.  We love because God first loved us.   It’s out of Jesus love that we can love others.  

And it’s in loving others that people are able to see the love of Jesus working in us.   It’s what defines us.  They will know we are Jesus disciples by our love. 

So are we loving one another in the church?   How about our brothers and sisters in Christ that are of a different denomination?  Do we see other Christians in other churches as our family that we are commanded to love or do we see them as competition?  How are we working together and loving each other? 

Further Questions to consider for today

Have you experienced the love of Jesus, has it made you new, does his love encourage you to love others? 

Is there someone you have lost touch with (a past friend) who God is calling you to reach out to in love?