Love One Another – John 13:34
This was my Great Grandfather’s favorite saying and has become mine. It sums up all that Jesus did for us in three simple words. If He did not love us first, then He would have abandoned us or He might not have gone to the Cross and we could have never been redeemed. Another great passage from John sums up God’s love perfectly,
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)
If God can love us and all of our sinful nature, then we can certainly love each other. How do we do this? It is looking at the greatness of each individual, appreciating them for what they do and accepting them for who they are. It is taking and loving someone because they are a child of God, if for no other reason. They might be the most evil person on the planet, the one who has hurt you like no other, but we are still called to love one another. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5: 44-45, “I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
It will never be easy to love one another. Sometimes it’s not even easy to love ourself. But isn’t that the one thing that we want from one another? To be loved. In order to be loved, we must love. We must be loving. We must forgive as Jesus did of the soldiers who hung Him upon the cross. We must show mercy where others have shown no mercy. Just think of what a wonderful place this earth could be if we just remember three little words, “love one another.”
Upgrade:
This week, pray for someone who you don’t normally pray for or someone who you have trouble loving and ask God to help you love them like God loves them. Write in your prayer journal how you changed towards that person or how they changed towards you.