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. (13:33-35)
I think the point of the author/s is a straightforward one, that Jesus' life and teaching emphasise love as the one very most important thing and that, if we have sufficient love, everything else will follow. That the quality of our love for one another is the only ultimate criteria upon which we'll be judged.
But is it? Is this realistic? Attainable? Sufficient for a world and Church in which to be right or correct seems to an ultimate goal? Or is it prophetic, with something to teach us all?
So do we need to consciously acknowledge Jesus' laying-down-of-life as the source of that love?
And how, I mean, how do we really love people that much?
1 comment:
Grace
Loving people is a journey towards God, it's not something we can innately do from within ourselves.
We're meant to be open to God's love and he will lead us into greater and greater love - in small, incremental steps, never asking more of us than we can give at any moment in time.
And each one of us can only give as much as we are individually capable of. We're not all capable or required to lay our lives down for others.
But I'm convinced that those of us who God calls to make this final sacrifice will be able to respond, thanks to his guiding and affirming love.
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