At the last supper, just before His crucifixion, and after predicting His betrayal, Jesus shares the following in John 13:
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.”
In this verse we see Jesus talking about ‘agapé’ – which is a value-driven and decision-based love. It is not rooted in experience or in feeling.
My dad used to say, ‘I don’t have to like you to love you.’
There are a myriad of situations where I might not like the other person, or feel like loving them – but I CHOOSE to love them because that is what Christ would have me do.
And yes, it is hard – at first.
Just like any discipline. It took a lot of practice to learn how to play the guitar. It took a lot of work to get good at your craft. It takes work, commitment and practice to progress in our love of others from mere feeling to decision.
“They will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”
Love in this context is a choice.
And it only works if we cast aside the fetters of pride and arrogance that would have us think that we are in any way, shape or form better than those we aim to love.
Heidi Baker, in her testimony, tells how the Lord sent her to sit with the poor – she was doing massive tent meetings at the time, and God stopped her, saying, “You don’t know anything about my Kingdom. You need to sit with the poor.” And that became her journey.
I personally learned a lot from going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Teachers like Rob Bell and Richard Rohr went through the same journey – when an older man came up to a young pastor Bell and said, “You can learn everything you need to know about running a church from going to an AA meeting…”
I learned how to really love in AA meetings.
Before that it was easy for me to judge, or to think myself superior – but that is not the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is not about being raised up – it’s about choosing to go down.
It is about choosing humility and being stripped of self so that Christ can be exalted in and through us. It is about going down to the level of and sitting with the poor, the lost, the addict – Jesus demonstrated that. God Himself stepped down from His heavenly throne to come and walk barefoot in the dirt among us… And not just ‘among’ us – but with us!
Christianity is about CHOOSING to love.
We are called to a higher standard as Christians. We are called to be different.
Even when we don’t like the other person. Even if we disagree. Whether they belong to our church or even if they don’t go to church at all. We do not pick and choose who to love, but instead we choose to love everyone regardless.
We are called to love – not like we love ourselves – but as Christ has loved us.
I got saved because someone chose to share the love of Christ with me even when I did not deserve it.
You got saved because someone chose to share the love of Christ with you.
John 15:13: “No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends.”
But Jesus proves His love in dying for us while we were still His enemies.
That’s the kind of love Christ would have us show the world.
The kind of love that lays down its life even for its enemies.
Christianity is about CHOOSING to love.
We are called to a higher standard as Christians. We are called to be different.
We are called to love – not like we love ourselves – but as Christ has loved us.
Prayer: Lord, in this day, show me and teach me how to love. Help me to not be blinded by ego and self-interest, but rather let me love regardless. Let me love like You love. Lord, in this day, show me how I can make a difference in the lives of those around me. Help me to walk as You walked. Not among people, but with people. And let my brothers and sisters who have strayed come back home in Jesus name. Amen