LOVE ONE ANOTHER

 

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

John 13:34-35 "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." NLT

Everybody talks about love; we either have it and want everyone to know it, or we don't have it and want everyone to help us find it. Love is important for our well-being. Those who are deprived of it suffer greatly and usually take out their frustrations on others. Many do not know how to handle being loved later on in life when they are denied it early in life. Many are so starved for love that they behave out of the normally acceptable standards of social behavior in order to find it.

God is love and made us with the need to love and be loved. He showed us how to love by sending Jesus into the world to be our Savior. Our Lord showed us how to love others. He touched so many lives wherever He went. He healed those who reached out to Him, both physically and spiritually. He taught love. He equated love with the identifying characteristic of His disciples.

We are to love each other in the same way we are loved by God. In order to do that we must first know what it is to be loved by God. We can't act towards others in love if we don't experience first God's love. And, if we don't act towards others with godly love, we are not His disciples. We prove our love and relationship with God by our love for one another.

We can only know God’s love through Calvary. It was love that kept Jesus on the cross, not the nails that held Him there. It was God’s love that allowed Jesus to take upon himself our sin, its guilt, shame and condemnation. It was love that drew salvation’s plan and it can only be known through the forgiveness of Jesus when we confess our sins to Him and accept what He did for us on the cross.

God loves you but you will never know His love apart from Jesus.