Love One Another

The words “love one another” are from Jesus himself; they are a command for Christians. John had a particular interest in God’s love, writing extensively about it even though other writers have plenty to say about the matter of loving one another and gives us an accurate picture of Jesus’ love for us, the love we are commanded to have for one another and what this looks like (READ John 13, 15 & 1 John 3, 4).

To “love one another” requires an understanding of Jesus’ love for us. Why? How I love others is directly related to my acceptance of Christ’s love, through faith for me. We cannot authentically love one another, with a Christlike love if we: have not accepted Christ as our Lord and Saviour; have not accepted Jesus’ love for us; fail to believe and accept he can forgive our sin; are not full of the Holy Spirit; and we think his grace is only for me and not for others.

The kind of love God intends is not something we can switch on like a tap and hope it will just be there, because it’s his love, it’s birthed in the Spirit, we can’t will it from nowhere. The key is in opening ourselves up to the Holy Spirit: only he can help us and guide us.
Love one another is a challenge. But it’s Jesus’ command. Optional is off-the-table. If I claim to love God, I love my brother and sister. This means I do everything – just as God gave us everything in Christ – in order to love.

To love God is to love our brother and sister. To not love fellow Christians, is to not love God (1 John 4:20). God says you want to love me, love him! How he commanded us to love is to love willingly, sacrificially and, unconditionally.
What can we practically do that fulfils Jesus’ command? STUDY the word, be SURE of God’s grace, SELF-evaluation, SPEAK the truth, SET a Love-One-Another Goal.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16) All that we do begins with Jesus. Loving one another begins with accepting what he has done for us. The love of the Father is what compelled Jesus to the cross. Jesus didn’t kneel in the garden of Gethsemane and say, God, this is too hard. No, he went willingly to the cross. I would suggest the absolute minimum we do in response, therefore, is to Love One Another.