"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." (John 13:34) The question isn't should we love? The real question about love is how should we love? Almost every person alive today claims to have at least one person whom they love so much. It could be a parent, a child, a sibling, a spouse etc. Most times when we are talking about love. we are talking about some feelings we have for a particular person. But love is more than just a feeling. If God has told us to love, He must have also told us how to love, don't you think? And the topic we want to discuss today is how God told us to love..
In the text above, Jesus did not beat about the bush when He told us to love, He went straight ahead and told us how we should love. The formua for love is simple: we are to love others the way Jesus loved us. That is the right way to love. In fact that is the only way to love! In other words, when we love any other way, we are not loving. True love, the kind that God commanded us to do must be patterned after the format Jesus has provided. And how did Jesus love us?
A preacher once asked a class, “What do you do with the commandments in the Bible?” A little old lady raised her hand and answered, “I underline them in blue.” And for some of us that is all we do about God's commands. Some people buy the Bible where all the words of Jesus are written in red, yet they fail to obey any of those words. If we must become what God wants us to become, we must learn to obey His words. How did Jesus love us?
Simply put, Jesus loved us sacrificially. He loved us for ourselves, not for himself. He loved us so that He might save us and bring us into eternal life. He loved us unconditionally, even though we are undeserving of His love. He loved us even to the point of dying for us. Dear friend, how do you love? Is your love conditional? Do you have ulterior motives for loving people? Does your love come with strings attached? Then, Jesus said it is not love! Love is sacrificial. It is unconditional. It is endless.
Prayer
Lord help me to love like you do in Jesus name. Amen