Love one another

Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:31-35).

As you listen to the radio, what are most of the songs about? It is love. The vast majority of popular music is written about the search for love, the joy of love, or the heartache of love.

As you watch TV shows, what is the most common concern among the characters in the stories? It is love. Situation comedies are usually either about married life or singles looking for love. Legal dramas often investigate crimes brought about by love gone wrong. Love and family are routinely the subjects of hospital shows and movies of the week. Even action heroes find time for romance or family between car chases and shoot-outs.

Our society is saturated with talk about love and how important it is in our lives. And yet it amazes me how many people don’t really understand what love is. The high rate of divorce in our country, the huge number of abortions performed, the endless lawsuits filed by one person against another, the number of people who rarely if ever attend church--these all speak to the fact that most Americans don’t know what love truly is or where to find it.

To understand love, we must start with God. In 1st John 4:16, the disciple closest to Jesus’ heart says quite simply, God is love. God is many things—He is eternal, He is all-powerful, He is all-knowing, He is holy. But the most important thing about God is that He is love. Love is all-important. In 1st Corinthians chapter 13, Paul tells us just how important love is: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Since God is love, we can only understand what love is by looking to Him. And as we look to God, we find that true love is characterized by three things. The first is being sensitive to those around you. A person who loves is aware of what is going on in the people all around him. Mothers are famous for being in tune with the needs of their babies. A mother can distinguish between a cry of pain, a cry of hunger, and a cry of loneliness. But this is a skill that we all can cultivate. If we are truly interested in showing love in our lives, then we must make the continuing effort to be attuned to the emotional states of others. Is your mother feeling lonely? Is your wife being tempted to spend money foolishly? Is your child afraid of bullies at school? Does your best friend wonder if God really cares about her? Is your boss consumed with bitterness over his divorce? Does that checkout clerk at the store seem depressed and withdrawn? Do you notice the signs of emotional distress in others, or are you too involved in your own problems to take the time to notice?

Jesus is fully aware of our every emotional need. Jesus lived among us to experience our pain first-hand and to make it His own. Jesus struggled with temptations, just as we do—Hebrews chapter four tells us, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Jesus was always aware of what was going on inside each person that He met, and Jesus continues to be concerned about each and every one of you today as well. Our Lord says even the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30). That’s how interested Jesus is in each of you; He knows you down to the finest detail.

The second characteristic of true love is that it is willing to get involved with anyone who is in need. Americans have been sold the lie that you have to feel an emotional connection with someone in order to love them. If that is true, you cannot love a stranger and you certainly cannot love an enemy. And yet listen to the words of Jesus: If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' lend to `sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:32-36).

How can you love a stranger? How can you love an enemy? You can love them by doing acts of love for them. Love does not require that you like a person or feel close to him; love requires only that you care enough about his welfare to get involved in his life. You can love a stranger by offering a sympathetic ear; you can love an enemy by praying that Jesus would bring him to repentance for his evil acts. To love someone is to desire that her life would be the best that it could be—that she would trust in Jesus, have her sins forgiven, and receive strength from Him to avoid filling her life with sinful decisions.

Through Jesus, God has loved His enemies; through Jesus, God has shown His love to us. In Colossians chapter one Paul tells us, once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Even though we entered life hostile to God, God chose to love us—chose to love us because He created each of us personally in our mothers’ wombs. Jesus calls us His children—children created by God’s life-giving power. Surely that alone is reason enough for us to commit to showing love to the strangers and enemies that populate our lives!

The third characteristic of true love is that it is willing to suffer discomfort. Most mothers do not look forward to 2:00 a.m. feedings, but they do it because they love their children and do not wish them to suffer from hunger alone in the dark. Love not only requires action, it often also demands personal sacrifice. Love for your father may demand that you help him with chores that you do not like doing. Love for your husband may require that you listen to him speak of his emotional pain, even when listening to his pain makes you feel uncomfortable. Love for your child frequently makes you confront him and set limits on his behavior, even when he accuses you of not loving him for treating him this way. Love for your best friend could entail the discomfort of giving away money that you need to someone who is in even greater need. Love for your boss could make it necessary that you give up an activity you had scheduled, so you can offer your help when it is needed. Love for a stranger may require that you face the fear of talking to someone you have never met and know nothing about.

Jesus lived a life of disappointment, betrayal, pain and early death, and He did it all out of love for us. Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). That is exactly how much Jesus has loved each of us. Jesus said, I have called you friends (John 15:15). And Jesus laid down His life for we, His friends. Jesus suffered the torment of hell itself, and that punishment brought an end to His life. But Jesus’ willing self-sacrifice is nothing but blessing for we who are His friends. Because Jesus suffered hell, we don’t have to—Jesus suffered all of God’s righteous anger at our sins in our place. We should love as God loves. We should be constantly sensitive to everyone around us—but we’re not. We should show loving concern for our enemies and for strangers—but we don’t. We should commit to loving others with every fiber of our beings, loving so completely that it often hurts—but we don’t. And because we don’t love as we should, we disappoint and anger our God who is above all the God who is love, and who expects that our lives be filled with His love.

Love is why Jesus came into this world. Love is why He suffered and died. Love is why He rose from the dead to live forever. Jesus wants to spare us from the torment of living under the control of sin. Jesus wants to spare us from the punishment of hell that our loveless lives have earned us. Jesus wants to be the first person that we see after we close our eyes in death, welcoming us to join Him forever in heaven where there is nothing but love, a perfect love that lives forever. God is love, and Jesus is God’s gift of love to us. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son (John 3:16).

Jesus says, as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. As you interact with God’s other children, take the time to look at each of them—really look. What are they feeling? Are they in need of God’s love? If they are, our Lord wants you to go to them. Show them your love, because by so doing, you show them your friend, Jesus.