Thoughts

Design: Steve Webb | Photo: Mister M on Unsplash

John 13 - A New Commandment

Remember when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was? Do you remember His answer? He quoted from Deuteronomy 6, which we also read today: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Did you notice the new commandment that Jesus gave the disciples in John 13 today? He said,"And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

How is this different than "You shall love your neighbor as yourself"? It is different in a very fundamental way. 

There is a difference between “my neighbor” and “other believers.” My neighbor means  non-believers as well as believers. It really means anyone I come in contact with. There’s a really good article at gotquestions.org that talks about this.

When Jesus gave this new commandment, He said, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Remember the setting. This is Jesus having his final dinner with the disciples.

So how did He love them? He loved them not as He loved Himself, but more than He loved Himself. We are to love each other more than we love our own selves. We are to love sacrificially, forgivingly, patiently, and every other way He loves us. 

This takes love to a whole new level, because honestly, sometimes I don't love myself very much. So setting the bar at loving my neighbor as I love myself is not putting it very high. But loving more than I love myself is.

And that could be a very difficult task indeed, if not for the way Jesus changed the words. Instead of love your neighbor, he said love each other. See, if I love my neighbor, and he continues to be a nincompoop to me, then it's hard to keep doing it. If I love him as Christ loves me, and he's a nincompoop, it's humanly impossible. With God loving him through me, by the power of the Holy Spirit…that is the only way I con love my neighbor.

But if we love each other as Christ loves us, then the command is much easier. If we treat each other as more important than ourselves, then the love of God will be evident to all around, because that kind of love just doesn't happen outside of God's love. And that's why Jesus said, "If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciple.”

Yes, believers can and do have differences. But we share so much in common, if we are truly His, then we…with His help...should be able to overlook those differences. 

John 14 - One Way

It wasn’t all that long ago that tolerance was supposedly at the top of the list of political correctness. But we all know that that has been put aside. Today “wokeness” supersedes all other forms of thought. At least that’s what gets the most media…both mainstream and social media. To buck that trend publicly is asking to be labelled as participating in “hate speech” and that’ll get you cancelled. 

So when we say out loud, in public, what the Bible teaches, we find ourselves in opposition to the woke. And when we say that Jesus is the only way to God, we’re called close-minded hate mongering bigots.

"How," they say, "can you say that there is only one way to God?