"I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
John 13:34-35
People talk a lot about loving your spouse (I am one of them) and about loving your kids and about loving your earthly family and friends... but Jesus wasn't concerned with those bonds in this statement. This command was given with respect to how we should treat other believers, other Christians. It says we are to love them... all of them... as Jesus did the disciples.
We've been through how God loves us, and we know that it is deep and abiding and downright hard for us to do the same. And since we know and accept that Jesus and God are one and the same Being, along with the Spirit, then we can logically infer that when Jesus says "just as I have loved you," it is the same love that God shows us. And we are COMMANDED to show this to every other believer.
There are those who save this love only for their close group of friends, and some who will venture out a little further than this in their emotional walk, and then others still who do show true Christian love to all they encounter. I know I fall short in this, and I give in to fleshly thoughts and comments and gossip, even when I should not. But it is the realization and awareness of that tendency that allows me to grow past it.
Take time tonight, beloved friends, to think of one person you can reach out to and share an extra dose of Christian love with. And then do it! Call, text, facebook, whatever it takes. Find your comfort level and reach out as a brother or sister who loves like Jesus loves. And don't forget, you must offer it freely and completely, with no reservations or expectations for anything in return... to do otherwise is for your gains, not for the Kingdom.
God bless you all!!!
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