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. John 13:34
Love one another. It is a different type of command than love your neighbor. This command is specifically for those within the Church Body. Love each other.
This seems like an obvious instruction because we are, after all, one Body. In a way, loving you is loving myself. Yet it still needed to be said.
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8
Why is this so important? We are His Body and we reflect God’s character when we love.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
He tells us specifically that people will know we are His if we love each other.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35
People are watching us, the Church at large. They decide who Jesus is by what they see in us. What does the world see on our social media, or hear when we speak of those who we call our brothers and sisters?
While we are all One, we are also very different from one another. We have disagreements. Sometimes serious ones. But God didn’t call us to uniformity, He calls us to unity. We are to deal with each other in love.
And the way we love is modeled by Jesus as well. We need to love one another – as Jesus loved us. That means sacrificially, putting others first; sacrificing my convenience, my preferences. Would I even consider giving up my life if it came to that? Jesus did.
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. John 15:12
It seems hard but we can fulfill this command, not of ourselves but by the Spirit. We are the Body but it the Spirit who lives in us together that gives us the ability and desire to do what we cannot on our own. We can love each other because He loved us first.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:11
Brothers and sisters, I want to love you better. And I need your love and grace in return. It is one way He provides for us.
May we together receive Paul’s blessing:
… and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you. 1 Thessalonians 3:12
