All You Need Love...
Jesus said it and meant it when he said it. He said this in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” He plainly said that it would be love, not knowledge, not doctrine, not which version of the Bible you use, not Scripture memorization, but love that would uniquely identify his followers. It’s not that all those other things are unimportant, it’s that if all of those other things don’t drive you to love then they are insufficient. By the way, we all know that the command to love doesn’t just stop with those who are like us; we are commanded to love all.
The epicenter and the essence of love is found in two defining Bible verses: 1 John 3:16 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and so we should lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” Romans 5:8 “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” What is love? Love is when God made a move toward us generated from his own desire and that move involved great sacrifice and he did it when we were unworthy of it and unaware of it. In other words, when we were sinning and deserved thunderbolts and lightning, God sent his son to die for us in order to open a path for a way back to God. It is Jesus giving up everything so that we can get everything without even a guarantee that we would accept him. That is God’s love toward us.
So what does love look like, the kind of love Jesus talked about that uniquely identifies his people? It looks much the same, it is our intentional actions toward others for their good given without discrimination. It is when we go without so somebody else can have something. It is when we make the first move knowing that it could be rejected. It is when we do good for others and are good for others and we do it without conditions attached.
This kind of love is radical and it is rare. We may do this for our family members or for a few friends but Jesus commands us to show this kind of love to everyone he brings into our life. Do you know what’s easier than showing this kind of love? Calling a divorce lawyer. Walking out. Buying a gun. Cussing someone out. Giving ultimatums. The silent treatment. Giving up.
What Jesus does for us on the cross is called love and it’s very one-sided. He does it all. And in the same way our love, our good actions given to others may not be reciprocated and it will seem unfair but this is why love is so radical, because we give it anyway. We love because we are loved.
