God Speaking

“A new command I give you; Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)

The last few weeks have seen our family struggling with the news of a serious health problem with one of our loved ones. It is so easy to be overcome with concern and worry and to allow those thoughts to pervade and to interfere with daily living and it is in the midst of anxiety that we most need the loving touch of a friend. I experienced this loving touch from a friend who lives thousands of miles away from me. She is unable to hug me physically, but she did the next best thing, she telephoned me. We have been friends since we were teenagers and because she lives in a remote part of Australia and I live in Canada, we usually communicate by e-mail, but she chose to telephone me in person. What a joy to hear her voice! What a joy to share with her my worry. I experienced another, loving me, just through a telephone call.

When Jesus gave this command to his disciples, he changed slightly the original command of loving one’s neighbour, by adding these words “as I have loved you”. Jesus is the supreme lover of all times and by adding those words he wanted us to use his example of love he displayed while on earth, in dealing with others.

The disciple, John, certainly experienced and observed this love and was anxious for all believers to understand the depth of Jesus’ words. His letters in particular are sprinkled with verses about love;

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:11 – 12)

Loving dear friends is easy, but Jesus added more startling words to this subject of loving when he spoke these words;

“But I tell you who hear me; Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27 – 28)

This of course is the hard part of loving one another, the difficult ones! How do we put this into practice so outsiders will notice and want to find out who motivates this love which is so different from the world’s?

Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, (1 Corinthians 13), devotes a chapter expounding on the importance of love. This chapter is often read at weddings where the emphasis is on the two getting married, but I feel it is a chapter for all of us to read constantly.

When we get to that point of exasperation with somebody let us hear these words come into our mind, “love is patient, love is kind”. When we are tired of listening to another’s great success in life; let us hear these words, “love does not envy” When we feel like letting those nasty words erupt from our mouths, let us hear these words, “it (love) is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered.” When we hang on to slights from others let us hear these words, “it (love) keeps no records of wrongs.”

I listened to a wonderful sermon on this love chapter where the pastor told us to substitute “Jesus” for the word “love” This for me made me read the chapter with a whole new insight and of course we will never be able to love others with the pure love of Jesus Christ, but we can certainly call on him to help us to love others in his name and perhaps there is somebody in our life who is needing to be shown that perfect love; the Lord is always willing to point them out to us.

“And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)