...Love as Jesus loves...

“7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’, while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

12 I am writing to you, little children,     because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.

13 I am writing to you, fathers,     because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people,

because you have conquered the evil one.

14 I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers,     because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong     and the word of God abides in you,        and you have overcome the evil one.

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; 16 for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.

Dear friends, in John 13:34, 35, Jesus says, 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John’s so-called “new commandment” is just a reiteration of Jesus’ New Commandment in the Gospel of John: “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

The other, or first, great love commandment was proclaimed by Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And on the night before Jesus died, after washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus told them: “A new command I give you: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Dear friends, we talked about this yesterday. Jesus (and John) want us to love one another just as Jesus loves us: completely and without exception.

If we pick and choose whom we love, we are not loving as Jesus loves us. And that is how He wants us to love. Remember, there is no asterisk on the Cross: Jesus died for ALL of humanity! And so we must love all humanity, which means we must forgive all! If we say we love as Jesus loves, but we don’t forgive everyone, we are a noisy gong and a clanging symbol!

So pray that this day you will love as Jesus loves.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.