“A new command I give
you: Love one another.”
These words must have echoed in the apostle’s ears as they
sat in the quiet of the upper room. A new command from the Teacher? What would
He ask of them? The last time a great prophet gave commandments, the law was
born.
But Jesus simply said, “Love one another.”
This was not a new command. Even in the old law, God
commanded His people to love their neighbors as themselves, even to the point
of loving a foreigner as if he was one of your own, so this concept was not new.
But then Jesus added this:
“As I have loved you,
so you must love one another.”
This is where things get harder. Jesus had just humbled
Himself to take on the task of a lowly servant – washing their feet, and He was
about to do something far more than that, He was about to love them so much that
He would give His life for them.
This means that the command of Christ is that we must serve
one another even to the point of death. Our brothers and sisters must be so
valuable to us, so lovely in our eyes, that we are willing to die out of our
love for them.
This is a high and lofty goal, but it doesn’t work out so
easily in real life. We gossip about each other, we say hurtful things, we get
insulted and hurt and fight with one another. But Jesus calls us to a higher
standard – the competition to lay aside our own ambitions and desires that we
may serve people the same way He did.
Imagine if we all humbled ourselves to make our brothers and
sisters look better. Imagine if we began thinking of the needs of others as
more valuable than our own. Imagine if, when we heard a brother or sister was
gossiping about us, we were quick to pray for them and rush to their service.
Imagine if we repaid one another’s insults with kindness. What would the church
look like then?
“By this everyone
will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Everyone would know that we were disciples of Jesus if we
loved one another like this, and they would be forced to admit that God indeed
was among us.
Remember that we will be with one another forever in our
Father’s house, so here’s the challenge. Find someone in the church you have
had difficulty with in the past. Go serve them, remembering how Christ served
you. It will be difficult; your flesh will hate it, but you will be a living
example of Jesus Christ, and the power of living like Him is unfathomable.
