Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, and shortly afterwards His ascension into heaven, Jesus comforted His disciples with these words: “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
The disciples were to love each other like Jesus had loved them. What does Jesus’ love for us look like? We need to look at how Jesus met and interacted with people. To see His love we must consider His rebuke of unrighteousness, His teaching from the Father, His praise of what is good, His tenderness toward the fragile, His devotion to truth, and His love in the face of adversity. His love for us is intentional, comprehensive, sacrificial, and filled with mercy, grace and compassion. The Lord our God purposed before the foundations of the earth were laid to save us for Himself to be His people forever. All this is shown clearly in His dying in our place, for our sins on the cross.
Such love is enough to bring rejoicing (or a dread, if we do not have a relationship with Jesus) to our hearts. For this love of Christ living in us brings life to our lifeless sinful beings.
Peter tells us that such love will make us pure for loving one another: “(1 Peter 1:22) Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply.” Obeying the truth is about believing in Jesus so that our hope and faith are in God.
This same love Jesus has shown to us, is the love He tells us to give to one another. With it, we will comfort one another, strengthen one another, spur one another on in our relationship with Jesus, and live together in harmony.
Paul talks about this love in saying (in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8) that love must not be just empty words. Rather love is “patient, love is kind. It is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
This is hard. But as we see in the Gospels, this is the love that Jesus lived for us and has now called for us to give to one another. The disciples would have seen this love in action as Jesus moved from place to place. In defending the truth in love Jesus rebuked the teachers of the law when they said one thing and did another. He lifted up the poor and the vulnerable. He gave hope to the lost, healing to the sick, assurance to the afraid, and added faith to the needy.
Love is a verb and we need to treat it as such—putting love into action as we live as followers of Jesus.
Prayer:
Using today’s passage and the reading notes spend time in prayer.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
· Pray for the Queensland Assembly as it meets this week. Pray that it will make good and wise decisions for the growth of our church in Queensland.
· Pray for the Lord to show you ways of loving others in the way Jesus has loved you.
Pray for the other churches in your town to live by God’s Word.
Discussion Questions For Families and Groups
1. Is there someone you find hard to love in your church? How might you learn to love them as Jesus loves you?
2. Worship is an expression of our love for God for who He is and what He has done. How do we show God’s love to others? What might be some examples of that expression of love?
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